“On economic matters, Bernard Grech is shockingly out of depth,” a seasoned economist told us recently. I was at a financial services event and we were discussing the current political and economic situation during one of the coffee breaks.
His statement was met by silent nods of approval.
Beginning with the Lawrence Gonzi administration, intensifying under the Simon Busuttil leadership, going haywire under the Adrian Delia chaotic leadership and collapsing under Grech, the Nationalist Party lost its ability and competence on economic matters. It is, today, at an all-time low.
Tonio Fenech’s performance as finance minister impressed no one, and he failed on many fronts. He was largely blamed for the 2013 PN general election disaster.
When the PN was voted out of office, it made some very poor choices in its finance spokesperson save for one – Mario de Marco – whose term was cut short by the powers that be within the PN.
It is a known secret that the handful who call the shots within the PN, and who have been doing so for the last 20 years and more, have always considered the de Marcos as a threat to their hold over the PN.
Jerome Caruana Cilia, then the PN spokesperson for finance, made a dog’s breakfast of a PN pre-budget document and was subsequently axed.
In the run-up to the 2022 general election, he was telling his Qormi constituency that he would be their ‘new’ John Dalli (the latter hailed from Qormi, too) in terms of financial competence. They took him with a pinch of salt. Time proved them right.
Caruana Cilia’s role was given to the current PN finance spokesperson, Graham Bencini, who is clearly gaffe-prone. Only recently, he dismissed the budget 2025 historical tax cuts as “ineffective”. They do not believe in tax cuts. They never did.
Under Bencini’s political responsibility, the PN was drafting a pre-budget 2025 document last summer. It was cut short. Rumours have it that its authors went on holiday. The document was recently leaked by the Labour Party. Its contents are shocking.
Bernard Grech’s speech was depressingly sad- Alex Agius Saliba
The lack of economic and financial knowledge demonstrated in this document is unbelievable.
At one point, the author(s) made a note with “Ryan & Joe Giglio we need more beef on this...” with reference to the PN’s energy proposals. (Ryan Callus is the PN spokesperson for energy and Giglio for infrastructure – the latter has been sidelined by the Grech administration).
Needless to say, the author(s) of this messed-up document were left with no beef.
As if that were not enough, Grech went to parliament to speak about the budget. He spoke for more than two hours. When he finished his speech, many were left wondering: “Where’s the beef?”
The opposition leader spent his time trying to convince the nation that Budget 2025 had the wrong priorities. In a nutshell, the unprecedented tax cuts announced in Budget 2025 were bad news. Probably, Bencini wrote that for him.
He pledged that a PN government under his leadership would reduce Malta’s population. How exactly he will do that is anybody’s guess. Grech promised that he would also diversify Malta’s economy. The specifics of how this will be done were left out.
And his speech was depressingly sad.
It would have been funny and hilarious had the man delivering the speech at that all-important occasion not been the leader of the opposition party.
There were a few embarrassed faces behind him. Other Nationalist MPs did what was expected of them: occasionally clapping, unenthusiastically.
The 17 Blue Heroes who forced him upon the party when they overthrew Delia will not admit that they were wrong when they did so but, privately, they admit that Grech can never be taken seriously by the electorate, especially on economic matters.
He failed and will fail again.
Alex Agius Saliba is Labour’s deputy leader for party affairs and an MEP.