Do not put stability at risk, Gonzi warns

The PN is once again proving to have the foresight to take the country forward, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said.

Stressing that the PN electoral programme is a clear pathway for the country to secure a better future, Gonzi explained that the party is putting all the cards on the table by saying how much the programme would cost and where the money will come from.

"A PN government will also set up an independent committee to scrutinize the government's expenditure," he explained.

On the other hand, Gonzi hit out at the Opposition for failing to publish its own programme although the electoral campaign had reached the half way line.

"We still have not seen Labour's phantom programme, and the strangest of all is that the Opposition's candidates have no idea of what their party's stand on the economy is. Labour is playing hide and seek with the electorate and this is unacceptable."

He added that on 9 March the people have to make a choice between the PN which will be sending its electoral programme to all households for all to see, "while on the other hand you have Labour which kicked off its campaign at midnight with all the fanfare of the Eurovision song contest and has yet to publish its manifesto."

"Weigh up your options carefully. Do not put the country's stability at risk," Gonzi said, inviting voters to look at what is happening in other countries.

"Look at what happened in countries abroad, the first victim of the austerity measures introduced were social benefits because governments could not pay for them," Gonzi said.

He added that in other countries where medicine was distributed for free to certain sectors of the population now had to be bought from pharmacies because the foreign government could not pay pharmacies for the medicines, pharmacies ended up with liquidity problems and couldn't buy medicine to sell to their clients.

"These are the realities other countries are facing. Anyone can easily verify what I am saying," he added.

Speaking on the PN's radio station, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the party's electoral programme includes 125 proposals showing that the country needs to achieve economic growth to guarantee the creation of wealth and new jobs.

"Everything depends on the coming five years to continue create the jobs - the be and end all. I'm not saying this to scare people, but this is the reality abroad. If we are not careful people will lose their jobs," Gonzi said.

Underlining his administration's success in crating jobs over the last five years, the PN leader said that during his tenure, up to 20,000 new graduates entered the labour market, more women joined the workforce and pensioners kept their job despite reaching retirement age.

Turning to the energy debate, Gonzi said the implementation of the night tariff would benefit industry, allowing companies to save money on their production costs and employ more workers.

"We must continue explaining that if we don't take care of our finances, we would pay a high price and this price would not be paid by the Prime Minister, the Opposition or political parties but the people would pay the price," Gonzi said, adding that students would end up paying for their education, workers would lose their jobs and the elderly would lose their pensions and social benefits.