Malta has become "unrecognisable" under the leadership of the Labour government due to the widespread corruption that has become the order of the day, Berard Grech said on Friday.
The PN leader was addressing a mass meeting at Pjazzi Tritoni this evening as part of the party's programme of events celebrating 60 years since Malta gained its independence.
Paying tribute to former prime minister George Borg Olivier, Grech said independence granted Malta the freedom to forge its own destiny and with it, our forefathers built strong foundations for the Maltese state to keep growing.
But despite this, the Malta the Maltese are living in today is "unrecognisable" from the inheritance promised to us by independence, Grech said.
The impact of foreign workers on people's quality of life, the country resembling a permanent construction site and the police failing to protect the rule of law and good citizens are some of the reasons Grech said the country has strayed from its original vision for self-governance.
But chief among these, he continued, is corruption that has overshadowed the Labour government to the point that it has become part of its operating system and most worrisome of all, that the government has lost the will and the spine to fight it.
"Robert Abela cannot fight corruption as he promised you because he is part of a system that creates and protects it at your expense," Grech said.
"Abela cannot do genuine politics in the national interest because corruption is the new normal and he has become a hostage of the compromises he has made."
Grech said the stench of corruption in the country is not only stagnant at the top but has seeped down to every level of society where people are even willing to corrupt themselves in exchange for a few measly euros.
"If those at the top are corrupt and do everything in their power to defend it from being dismantled, we can expect those underneath them do act and think the same way," Grech said.
"Instead of working to fight corruption, the government is caught in its political trap."
Conversely, he said that the PN has a past that it is proud of and can look back with its head held up high. It is on this solid foundation that it also has the confidence to be a government of certainty and stability again.
A PN Government would improve the quality of life by investing in public spaces, and cleanliness, and ensuring that health services and construction standards are of the highest level, Grech pledged.
Under Robert Abela, he continued, the country is no longer shocked when it hears of a new corruption scandal and is left surprised when something is actually done properly.
"People of all political colours are suffering under this government and while their beliefs may differ I believe what they have in common is their lover for their families and their country," Grech continued.
"So to you, whoever you are, I ask, is this the life you voted for? is this the Malta that you want to live in?"
The PN leader said that "time is up" for the government and while Labour remains tangled in corruption and incompetence, the PN is standing out as the party of hope and change.