Eddie Aquilina is a Nationalist Party apologist. He took me to task for an article I wrote that was published in Times of Malta (‘What does the PN stand for?’, October 31, 2024).

It is no secret that this question has haunted the PN since Malta’s accession to the EU when many concluded, and rightly so, that the party failed to articulate what it stood for.

Prior to EU membership, the PN had a clear vision and a plan to secure Malta’s place in the EU. That ceased to be the case post-membership.

However, knowing how deeply involved the veteran book publisher is in the PN and its fringes, I was expecting him to give us a thorough explanation of what the PN stands for now.

He did nothing of the sort. Instead, he lashed out at me, attacking me personally and, in the process, sinking to new depths.

It always amazed me how Nationalist Party apologists, the likes of Aquilina, who, for years, doubled up as the unofficial wardrobe attendant of PN prime ministers, are unable to challenge the message and, instead, attack the messenger.

He alleged that, on my watch, as head of the national broadcaster’s newsroom, PBS “has been found guilty many times of being a propaganda machine for the Labour government”.

Fake news. Never on my watch was PBS found guilty of impartiality in the news. Neither was it ever found guilty of any disinformation while I was PBS news editor. 

Aquilina writes fervently in favour of the PN but clearly has no idea what his party stands for.

I don’t blame him. A few days ago, the nation watched Bernard Grech giving his reaction to the budget in a parliamentary speech that was a complete mess.

Nationalist Party supporters, eager to watch their party make inroads, have since told me that Grech’s speech was painful to watch. They were left wondering, where is the beef?

For two hours, the PN leader, as Aquilina does in his Times of Malta articles, attacked Prime Minister Robert Abela personally but failed to articulate his party’s economic vision.

To be fair with Grech, he had nothing to articulate because his party had no economic vision.

They themselves confirmed this in a pre-budget document that never saw the light of day but which was recently leaked to the Labour Party.

At one point in time, the author of the PN’s document tells two Nationalist MPs that the party’s proposals on the energy sector need “more beef”.

Hilarious were it not tragic – for this is Malta’s opposition party that we are talking about, sinking to new depths and flat on its back.

Aquilina writes fervently in favour of the PN but clearly has no idea what his party stands for- Norma Saliba

In true fashion of a party that lies through its teeth each and every time it paints itself into a corner – which is often – Aquilina reiterated the PN’s fake news that Labour, in Budget 2025, increased the pensionable age by another year.

It was the PN government that raised the pensionable age. Labour never did so.

Aquilina, the Nationalist Party apologist, criticised Budget 2025’s historical tax cuts, as did Grech and Graham Bencini, the PN spokesperson for finance.

Aquilina, Grech and Bencini do not believe in tax cuts.

They never did.

He wrote about overpopulation, admittedly a growing concern, and said that the PN had its own solutions to this challenge but, then, he went on to write about other matters and we never got to know what these ‘solutions’ were.

In this respect, he did as Grech, who, in his budget reaction speech, said the same thing but failed to explain his so-called solutions.

Labour, on the other hand, acknowledges that population growth is a challenge and a concern for many and the prime minister, in his reaction to Grech’s chaotic speech, explained that, in the coming months, a new labour migration policy shall be unveiled, which shall prioritise skilled foreign workers over non-skilled ones.

What Aquilina and Grech failed to tell us was that, in their pre-budget-document-of-confusion, they are proposing to import no fewer than 30,000 foreign employees.

The PN has rendered itself unelectable.

On many issues, especially on economic matters, it cannot be trusted.

The ‘unity’ that they are trying to portray is fragile, after the tumultuous short period of the Adrian Delia leadership, who was cruelly removed from PN leader by a group of so-called 17 Blue Heroes, Nationalist MPs aided and abetted by the likes of Aquilina who, at the time, was very vocal in his opposition to Delia.

The leaked PN pre-budget document to the Labour Party exposes a deeply divided opposition party.

The tragedy is that, despite many, including current and former PN supporters, urging them to get serious, identify what the party stands for and articulate a vision for Malta, the PN is a party with its fingers in its ears.

Norma Saliba is the Labour Party’s head of communications and spokesperson. 

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