PN accuses Robert Abela of hypocrisy after Eddie Fenech Adami comments
Opposition party says Labour voted in favour of concession back in 2000
The Nationalist Party has accused Prime Minister Robert Abela of hypocrisy on Manoel Island, pointing to the Labour party’s voting in favour of the concession when it was opposition.
Reacting to Abela telling reporters yesterday that “Eddie Fenech Adami gave his friends this concession in 2000 for peanuts,” the PN called the PM’s words a “desperate attempt to make people forget that it was the Labour Party... that voted in favour”.
In a statement, the Opposition said Abela, after being “completely silent and inactive” on Manoel Island for five years, was “throwing mud at someone who has been out of politics for years”.
“Robert Abela finds himself cornered. And just as he always does when he’s under pressure, instead of shouldering responsibility for his own failures, he’s shamelessly gone on the offensive,” the party said.
“Abela and his Government have been in power for 12 years and never once took responsibility to ensure the terms of the Manoel Island concession were properly honoured.”
Accusing Abela of U-turning on the concession, the PN said that after he “claimed nothing could be done because it would cost the country millions”, the PM had “aligned” with Opposition leader Bernard Grech, announcing the government would review the concession.
On Wednesday, Grech said his party was willing to do “everything possible” turn Manoel Island into a national park, marking a change in tack from his words last week that contracts should be respected and that calls for the site to be turned into a park were a "beautiful dream".
“If Robert Abela wants to be fair with the people, he should acknowledge that realities have changed in the last 25 years and show some sensitivity towards the residents around Manoel Island, who are fed up with constant development surrounding their homes,” the statement read.
“Robert Abela alone bears the responsibility for what happens to Manoel Island in the years ahead. Not Eddie Fenech Adami, not the Opposition, and not anyone else.”