The latest Eurobarometer survey showing that half the people felt that Malta was heading in the wrong direction showed that the country was at a crossroads and courageous decisions were needed, PN leader Bernard Grech said on Wednesday.

The survey, he observed, contrasted with previous findings that 65% felt that Malta was heading in the right direction.

The new survey, issued on Wednesday, also found that 85% of the Maltese expect their standard of living to deteriorate.

Grech told a radio interviewer that the survey results tallied with the people's concerns about deteriorating living standards as they grappled with the cost of living, congested roads, hospital overcrowding and a growing waste problem, to mention just a few issues. 

But Malta, he warned, could not move forward unless it solved its governance issues, most recently confirmed by the Rosianne Cutajar scandal. There could be no good governance without integrity by the country's leaders.  

The prime minister, Grech said, was showing himself to be tired and out of ideas, recycling old solutions and even copying PN ideas but implementing them badly. 

Grech said a future PN government would change economic direction, bringing about economic growth without population growth and without harming the environment or undermining people's living standards. It would be a government that attracted real foreign direct investment that paid good wages, not fakes such as the so-called university or the so-called hospital.  

It would also be a government which invested in education and teachers, as well as in health services, and it would provide people with real opportunities for advancement, where ordinary people did not see positions awarded to people on the basis of their friendship with ministers.

In his comments Grech also appealed to supporters to contribute to the party in a fund-raising marathon Sunday, with the funds earmarked for improving the party's radio station.