Budget preparations well under way

Eddie Fenech Adami said yesterday preparations for the next budget were well under way and the finance minister had finalised the basis of a report which would be discussed at the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development shortly.

"There will be no gimmicks in the budget. Unlike Dr Sant, we do not believe in them," he said.

Speaking at the Nationalist Party's Zabbar office, he said the referendum on EU membership would be held in the first half of next year.

He said Opposition leader Alfred Sant was giving the impression that he was a newcomer to the Labour Party and that the party he led was a "new, born-again party" when in fact it was the same party that had committed shameful, undemocratic acts.

"Dr Sant was president of the MLP at the worst times. He was the chairman of a board that determined who went to university or not. He should have the courage to apologise for doing things against democracy," he said.

The people had matured and were fed up of the "obscenities uttered on Super 1".

Proof of such maturity was the fact that they had voted for Alfred Sant in 1996 and voted him out again less than two years later after realising he could not deliver on his promises.

The Labour media portrayed the state of the country as very gloomy and gave the impression that the economy was stagnant and people were scraping the bottom of the barrel to make ends meet.

"We do have our problems but we are not doing badly. I consider labour statistics as one of the best gauges of how a country is doing."

He drew parallels with the political situation 38 years ago when the country was about to gain independence.

"Then too we had prophets of doom saying there would be no investment and that thousands would become unemployed. The PN was, as usual, full of the courage needed to win independence, which gave us a lot of opportunities.

"Now Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici is saying he wants to defend it."

In a statement, the MLP said the PN was good at hiding problems rather than facing up to them.

It argued that if labour statistics were an indicator of a country's well-being, Malta was not doing well at all as there were 12,000 unemployed, 60 per cent of whom were under 30.

The government was burdening people with taxes even though it had promised to lessen the tax burden before the last elections, the MLP said.