AD chairman insists PM must choose what he is going to be

The present Administration has disappointed the legitimate expectations of those who were in favour of EU membership, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo said yesteday.

Dr Gonzi's premiership will go down in history "as a step back in the country's political development," he claimed.

The pre-accession consultation was transformed into a "historical deception" and there has been a profound disappointment of people's expectations.

"While the MLP misread the times in opposing EU membership, the Gonzi Administration did worse by cruelly disappointing those whose support had been gained on the understanding that politics would be conducted in a different manner," he said.

Dr Vassallo said Dr Gonzi's premiership was a "worthy heir to the autocratic post-independence regimes that stepped into the shoes of colonial rulers and took on the worst aspects of their rule while spouting xenophobic and anti-colonial rhetoric".

The government carried out a pre-budget consultation without giving any indication of the amount of public funds that were expected to be available.

This, he said, clearly showed that the exercise was "little more than a public relations" one. This was confirmed by the fact that the public was invited to make proposals in the days before the budget speech, when nothing could be changed.

"The public was treated as completely naïve and ignorant."

The numerous violations of EU directives were evidence of the distance between the Administration's plans to have a monopoly on the credit for EU membership and its dismal performance as an EU member government.

"Dr Gonzi has to decide whether he is pro-EU membership or an old-style autocratic Prime Minister stepping into the shoes of a British Governor."

The election of AD candidates to Parliament would make arrogant and obstinate governments a thing of the past and oblige any government to respect ordinary citizens.

"It is definitely the responsibility of any government to acknowledge the absurdity of obliging young families to take out 40-year loans to buy a modest home when there are 53,000 vacant properties in the country," he said.