Busuttil – ‘Only leftovers for Labour’s soldiers of steel’

Labour’s “soldiers of steel” will be forgotten once again after the European electoral campaign, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said today evening in reply to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s recent appeal to Labour’s grassroots.

Addressing a party event in Zebbug, the Opposition leader said the so-called “soldiers of steel” were only being remembered by Muscat during election campaigns, in contrast with his “closest friends” whom he said were being given numerous jobs with the government.

“The Labour Party is maltreating its own loyal supporters. The ‘soldiers of steel’ were only given a 2c cut in fuel prices, but if you happen to be the minister’s wife you get €13,000 per month,” Busuttil said, referring to the wife of energy minister Konrad Mizzi – Sai Mizzi, who was appointed Malta Enterprise envoy to Asia.

”The soldiers of steel are only given leftovers, and after the election they will be forgotten once again,” Busuttil said. 

Setting much store in saying that Zebbug, the town where Busuttil was addressing PN supporters, was a stronghold for former health minister Godfrey Farrugia, Busuttil remarked that Farrugia was another example of the way the Labour government “first uses and then discards a person when he is no longer needed.”

“Muscat first removed Farrugia from his health portfolio, and then offered him another ministry to silence him. But we all know how Farrugia stood up to him and refused to be used in this way by Muscat.

“We have a government that after just a year already lost a minister who resigned, and a parliamentary secretary who refused to form part of Muscat’s cabinet. This is the grim reality of Muscat’s government after just a year in government.”

Busuttil voiced his concern about the lack of job creation and said that unemployment was continuously increasing, now reaching the 8,000 mark.

Asked to comment about Muscat’s insistence that the Labour Party was still the underdog in the European elections, Busuttil said that this was not the first time that the prime minister was giving a false impression in a bid to divert attention away from the real issues.

“He reverts to gimmicks to solve problems. Instead of ‘out-of-stock medicines’ he is now using the term ‘pending order’; hospital corridors are now being called ‘wards’; privatisation plans are now re-branded as ‘strategic partnerships’. This is how Muscat intends to solve the country’s problems. That is why I’m not surprised that Muscat is insisting on the underdog status despite surveys showing the total opposite,” Busuttil said. 

The Nationalist Party leader concluded that the upcoming elections were “a very difficult electoral test” for his party, adding that it was impossible to climb back over a 36,000 vote deficit registered in the last 2013 elections.

“Our party is on its feet despite the several challenges it has had to face. Let us send a strong message that the Nationalist Party is on  the right direction and has innovative ideas, because a nine-seat majority should not entail abuse of power and arrogance,” the Opposition leader said to the applause of those present. 

Earlier, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami spoke about the proposed amendment to the Constitution which prohibits discrimination based on disability, saying that this motion by the Opposition highlighted the difference between the political parties. 

“16 months in the legislature, it is now evident that after the Labour Party used persons with disability in a scandalous manner just to obtain their votes, these persons are now left with empty promises,” Fenech Adami said.