Appoint a Nationalist President, Delia challenges Prime Minister

Adrian Delia has challenged the Prime Minister to choose someone from the opposing political camp as Malta’s next president.

Speaking to followers at the PN Rabat club, the Opposition leader said Joseph Muscat had an opportunity to send a message of unity by appointing a Nationalist president when President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca’s term comes to an end in April.

He said the PN had done this when George Abela had been made President in 2009. “Joseph Muscat, you have the chance to do what Lawrence Gonzi’s government did years back. Malta needs a president who is not chosen from the Labour camp."

“The country needs unity and has to let go of division. If you love your country and do not want it to be divided, choose a president from the opposing camp.”

Corinthia land ‘given away for free’

The government had finally realised that it had to build social housing, and said it would be building 1,000 apartments, Delia remarked.

He said the government had sold Maltese citizenship to be able to fund the building of these apartments, as he went on to lambast the government for “giving away” land worth €700 million to the Corinthia Group.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to not give away land in Paceville, which is worth €700, for free. How many apartments could have been built with the €700 million? How many families could have been guaranteed a roof over their heads?”

Nationalist Party’s doors open

Delia commended Rabat mayor Charles Azzopardi, who was not allowed to contest the upcoming local council elections after he opposed a proposed development in Saqajja which would see two idyllic town houses replaced by a hotel.

"Although he is a Labour mayor, he is also a mayor of the people... He doesn’t allow anyone to pull his strings,” Delia said, adding that the doors of the Nationalist Party were open for Azzopardi and others who realised that the Labour Party had lost its social conscience.

Delia said the PN was the party which had set up local councils 25 years ago, because it wanted to grant power to the people and decentralise power. “From the outset, Labour were against local councils, and didn’t want to give people any power, preferring to keep it in its own hands.”

Government has no vision

Emphasising that the government lacked vision, Delia reiterated his previous criticism that the only way Muscat knew to make the economy grow was to bring in more workers, leading to a cosmopolitan Malta, full of cement towers, with the Maltese living in underground cages.

“The government wants more people to come to our country, which is already one of the most densely populated. The government has no vision, and no soul. It wants 13,000 more people to come to Malta, but it left 170 [migrants] in danger at sea.”

The PN believed that economic expansion could be attained “through [the Maltese people's] abilities, their technical prowess, the use of science and a knowledge-based economy”, Delia said.