Muscat: Abstention ‘a win for Busuttil’

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has reached out to the Labour core with a call to voters to vote for PL candidates in Saturday’s local councils elections, insisting that staying at home in protest would be “a win for Simon Busuttil”.

At a party rally in Gzira, Muscat hit out at the Opposition leader, whom he said had failed his own transparency benchmark. “Mr Transparency has been missing for a number of days now. Easter break is over but looks like he hasn’t woken up. What is he scared of? From journalists who are waiting to press him with questions? If it’s not the journalists, then it’s the people,” Muscat said.

Muscat said Busuttil had hid from the press in a bid to avoid questions on the votes-for-works scandal that has embroiled former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono and her husband Anthony Debono.

He said that back in March 2013, his newly-elected government was facing the imminent departure of companies that would make hundreds of workers redundant. “They complained about the problems they faced but we urged them to stay, promising to tackle their issues, starting with reducing excessive red tape,” Muscat said.

Only less than 24 hours since he laid the foundation stone of a €120 million high-rise project in Gzira the day earlier, Muscat also revealed that Libyan investors HB Group had threatened to quit their Metropolis project. “The investors had given up with all the hurdles they were facing and they were simply going to take their project elsewhere. We stopped them from leaving and started taking the decisions that needed to be taken. Thanks to this, 400 jobs will be created and an abandoned area will now be regenerated, increasing property value,” he said.

To the cheers of the sizeable crowd gathered under the tent, Muscat said 9,000 women this week received a contribution of up to €200, who had not been entitled to a pension because their national insurance contributions had not been paid in full.

Earlier, energy minister Konrad Mizzi defended what he termed a “fully transparent process” in parliament that saw the carving out of the Petroleum Division from Enemalta into the recently set-up Enemed.

Addressing the Labour rally on the same day the PN mounted a campaign on a number of land transfers to Enemalta, Mizzi said the government had acted swiftly to save thousands of jobs, attract €320 million in foreign direct investment and improve the company’s credit rating.

He added that had Enemalta collapsed, banks and people’s savings would have gone down with it.

Mizzi was warmly welcomed by the Gzira residents, cheering him on as he described how “happy” he felt to form part of the Labour movement led by Joseph Muscat.

The energy minister explained how the government “inherited the highest utility bills” in Europe and now tariffs had gone down for both business and households, generating some €80 million in savings.

Reiterating the importance of having a mix in energy supply, Mizzi said the government had worked to have a sustainable and reliable plan in energy generation. The interconnector, fully operational, will be inaugurated on Thursday in the presence of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.