Borg vows crackdown on bureaucracy as PN prepares next wave of proposals

Alex Borg has signalled that a Nationalist government would move to cut bureaucracy and eliminate red tape, as he outlined the party’s next set of electoral proposals focusing on transport, families and the cost of living.

Speaking to a sea of blue-clad supporters in Lija on Friday, ahead of the May 30 general election, PN leader Alex Borg hinted at what the PN manifesto will focus on next.

“The PN in government will be the enemy of bureaucracy. We will soon be announcing how to eliminate red tape in Malta,” Borg said.

He added that his government would also support entrepreneurs and ensure a level playing field for businesses competing for government contracts.

The PN leader added that business people have told him that they do not compete for government tenders because they know the winner is a foregone conclusion.

Moving on to families, Borg said his government would work to improve the quality of life for families and ensure that Maltese “work to live and not live to work”.

He revealed that in the coming days the party will unveil proposals to tackle the high cost of living.

“We will offer factual solutions to these problems,” he said.

The PN supporters turned out in force for the first mass meeting of the election campaign. Photo: PN

He also pledged that a PN government would not tax the first €10,000 earned in overtime and part-time work.

Speaking on Workers' Day, Borg said his government will honour the memory of Jean Paul Sofia, by making sure that workers’ safety is a government priority under his leadership.

Sofia died in December 2022 when a three-storey building under construction at the Corradino Industrial Estate collapsed, burying him under rubble. A public inquiry into the matter was only initiated following months of public pressure. That inquiry found institutional failings.

The PN leader touched on transport, reiterating a pledge that a Nationalist government would open the first line of mass transport system within the five-year legislature. However, he did not elaborate on any details about this transport plan.

“I’m a signing a contract with you all within the government’s first 100 days we will begin working on a mass transport project.”

Borg spent most of the first five days of the electoral campaign focusing on health issues, announcing a National Health Village at Selmun palace on Friday morning, just  hours before the mass meeting.

In Lija, he reiterated those pledges, adding that a PN government would address waiting times at the hospital emergency department.

“Waiting long hours at the emergency will be only a legacy of the Labour Party because under the Nationalist Party it will be a thing of the past,” Borg said.

May 1 also marks the 22^nd anniversary since Malta joined the European Union and Borg paid tribute to the “brave Maltese men and women who ensured, with their democratic voice, that we began our European chapter”.

“We have those same responsibilities today,” he told the cheering crowd, which included many young people.