The government never had a serious plan to save the national airline and this lack of planning had driven Air Malta into the ground, Bernard Grech said on Friday.
The Nationalist Party leader said this lack of vision for Air Malta over the past nine years had led to uncertainty among its workers who had been promised a future prior to the election.
In an interview on Net FM, Grech said that employees were promised many things that were never implemented, and according to media reports, the plan was now to shut down the national airline.
Times of Malta reported earlier on Friday how severance packages being offered to Air Malta employees were described by the Malta Employers Association as “the most obscene in Malta’s industrial relations history”.
The MEA noted that the figures could cost the country €50 million if all 350 Air Malta workers represented by the General Workers' Union opted for the deal.
It accused the government of squandering taxpayers’ money to resolve a mess of its own making, a sentiment echoed by Grech who stressed that the government never had a serious plan of how to strengthen the airline.
He said it was worth noting that the government was forging ahead with its own plans without any form of consultation. The government was acting in the same manner when it comes to other issues such as the appointment of a standards commissioner and the ombudsman.
He said that despite writing to Prime Minister Robert Abela several times over the past month about these appointments, he had received no reply and there were no discussions on who could occupy such important roles.
Grech recalled how while the government had continued to hand millions of euro to people such as Sadeen, Vitals and Steward, it had nothing for young people who wished to have their first property or those who had to spend thousands to rent a property.
'PN alive and kicking'
He said the Nationalist Party was continuing to work on a number of proposals that help families, including the work-life balance directive that came into force on the insistence of Nationalist MEP David Casa.
Taking about the party's drafting of a pre-budget document, Grech said that the PN will be building on the proposals it presented during the electoral campaign.
“I am proud of our parliamentary team. We are discussing the environment, Gozo, work-life balance, the issue of scooters and other important issues. The PN is working, it is alive and kicking, it is on the ground with people,” he said.
Grech also paid tribute to president emeritus Guido de Marco, his university lecturer when he was following the law course, on the 12th anniversary of his death and congratulated the Ħamrun Spartans club for becoming the first Maltese club to qualify for the UEFA competition playoff round