‘Calling Muscat a salesman would be too generous’ - Busuttil

Dubbing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as a “salesman, and not a statesman,” Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has hit out at the government, claiming that it is an expert in marketing, and of implementing “gimmicks” to gain political mileage.

Addressing a political rally in Siggiewi, Busuttil said the government’s reduction in energy tariffs, and its most recent agreement with two private hospitals is only intended on securing votes.

“The government has managed to undo all the cooperation between the previous administrations with private hospitals – a move which has made the situation of the waiting lists and medicine shortages even worse. Coincidentally, just as the PN announced that it would be visiting a private hospital, the government, fully aware of this, announced a public private agreement with two private hospitals,” Busuttil said.

The PN leader also argued that the “disastrous” situation within the health sector is only because the government removed the competent people and replaced them with its inner circles.

“The government replaced competent workers with Labourites. How could there be positive results within the health sector, when the staff is incompetent?” he held.

The PN leader argued that the government’s measures – including the “positive” budgetary measures – proved that it is only interested in marketing tactics aimed at garnering more votes for the Labour Party

 “Calling the prime minister a salesman may be too generous because his ‘sales’ and promises are based on deceit. Joseph Muscat is not doing what he promised, the epitome of which being the failed Malta Taghna Lkoll mantra,” Busuttil said.

Labour Party is “anything but underdog” - Busuttil

Placing his trust on the “intelligence of the people”, the PN leader said the electorate is smart enough to realise that the government did not fulfil its electoral pledges, and moreover, it did not deliver a ‘better’ Malta.

“Conversely, it is the Opposition who is working for a better Malta, not the government,” he underlined.

While urging voters to use the election as a platform to judge the government’s first year, Busuttil took exception at Prime Minister’s claims that the Labour Party is the underdog in the forthcoming election – arguing that if anyone has a mountain to climb, it was the Nationalist Party.

“The Labour Party is nothing but an underdog. If the Labour Party is at a disadvantage, then where is the PN at?”

Nevertheless, he said that the elections are the perfect way to judge the government’s performance – “a government whose one year performance has only been enjoyed by Labour’s inner circles.”

 “Similarly,” Busuttil claimed, “the government also failed in its pledge to secure more work opportunities. Unemployment is increasing every month, while unemployment amongst youths and women increased to 2,000 and 5,800 respectively.”

While welcoming the government’s measures to encourage more youths to work – amongst which include the child care centres – Busuttil argued that this would only yield fruit if there were work opportunities.

On the country’s “exploding” deficit, Busuttil argued that while the government criticised the previous PN administration for racking up €300 million in debt during the final three months of the legislature, the government has now increased this by €58.1 million.

Eurostat statistics revealed that in 2013 deficit reduced by 0.5% to 2.8% of Malta’s GDP, while its national debt increased by €372 million when compared with the corresponding year - €300 million of which were incurred by the previous Nationalist government during its final three months, Joseph Muscat said.

“While the government criticised the previous PN administration for purportedly racking up €300 million in debt during 2013’s first quarter, the government has now responded this by increasing Malta’s national debt by €60 million,” he said.

NSO statistics show that the deficit between January and March 2014 amounted to €225.6 million, an increase of €58.1 million when compared with corresponding period last year, while in addition, recurrent revenue and expenditure increased by €41.3 million and €99.4 million respectively.