Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday said he would be asking people to take to the streets and stage a protest against the way the government was leading the country.
Speaking at Labour’s Rabat club yesterday morning, Dr Muscat said the people had been very patient but when the time was right nobody should tell the party not to demonstrate.
Although he stopped short of giving further details, the Labour Leader insisted the demonstration would stress that the people deserved more than the government they had.
He said blue-collar workers, professionals and self-employed were saying that they did not care about yesterday’s politics but wanted a government with the vision to bring the country into a new era.
In a 50-minute speech in which he repeatedly criticised the government, Dr Muscat said there was consensus about its mediocrity and failure.
“We cannot be in 2009 and have a mentality of the Middle Ages, with a government drowning in corruption and where you don’t get what you need unless you pay.”
Although the people were promised free healthcare they ended up on long waiting lists when they needed surgery, he said.
In a statement later the PN defended the government by saying that some 35,000 operations were performed in Mater Dei last year and the government was committed to invest in cancer care.
The Labour leader said the government was not doing anything to control the rising cost of living which was eating away at people’s salaries.
“The country is drowning under this unstable, irresponsible and mediocre government.” Although past Nationalist and Labour governments had moved the country forward, the current Administration had failed to achieve its aims.
Although unemployment had risen by 1,300, the government only used €5 million to aid industry.
He criticised the government for allowing the deficit to explode from the projected €88 million to a staggering €345 million until August. “This is incompetence, instability and incapability,” he said, adding that the government could no longer blame subsidies for water, electricity or gas because they had been removed, or the shipyards since they had been closed.
Dr Muscat said the money lost through the Fairmount contract could easily have paid for the oncology hospital and expressed his certainty that before the election both Dr Gonzi and Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt knew what had happened.
“The estimate given for these ships did not even cover the raw materials, let alone salaries or profits,” he said.
Referring to the Delimara power station contract, Dr Muscat said the taxpayer was going to fork out €200 million for a polluting plant which would need to be changed in seven years. He criticised the government for not agreeing to a date to discuss a PL motion on the issue in Parliament.
“The aim of this motion is not to embarrass the government,” he said, claiming that this was a serious case of corruption.
The PN in its statement insisted the plant was in line with EU standards and the people would have to pay much higher prices for their energy if the plant were to be built as the PL wanted.
Dr Muscat also expressed satisfaction at Ireland’s Yes vote for the Lisbon Treaty, which brought Malta closer to getting its sixth seat in the European Parliament.