Representatives of the Nationalist and Labour parties crossed swords on Wednesday on issues of credibility and on their respective environmental and economic credentials.
The issues were raised during a debate organised by the Broadcasting Authority where PN candidate Julie Zahra took her Labour colleagues to task on Labour’s pledge to invest €700 million in environmental initiatives in the next five years.
“How credible can the Labour Party be with its pledge to invest in the environment when it spent the last five years chopping trees and eating up agricultural areas to widen roads...now you want to create open spaces with trees,” she said.
The PL, she said, promised a lot before the 2017 election, including an improved environment but gave Malta the opposite. It also promised better roads but the country still had roads that flooded when it rained.
Labour candidates Byron Camilleri and Jonathan Attard struck back, saying the PN had amended its electoral programme several times because it was laden with mistakes and the election found the PN unprepared.
“What version are you referring to?” Camilleri asked sarcastically when a reference was made to the PN programme.
Camilleri said the new economic sectors being pledged by the PN already existed, including esports, 3D printing, tourism and aviation. He ridiculed the party for failing to make “basic research” such as to see that Malta Enterprise already had an office in Gozo and the GU Clinic had started offering services in Gozo last May.
He said Labour's electoral programme would be launched this Friday but the party was already unveiling its key proposals from the first hours of the campaign. “Never did people have a clearer choice between the past and the future,” he said.
PN candidate Ivan Bartolo said corruption was costing the Maltese economy €725 million a year and these funds should instead be invested in new sectors. “The country needs a new direction and new industries. The country needs the PN in government because it is the only one which has a vision for the country,” he insisted.
He said that according to surveys, 70 per cent of youths wanted to leave Malta because they saw no future here. This was why the Nationalist Party was proposing to invest in ten sectors that would create jobs and bring investment to Malta, he said.
Labour candidate Jonathan Attard said the PN was a guarantee that people would return to the time when it was in power, with austerity measures, excessive deficit procedures, frozen stipends and pensions and spiralling unemployment.
“This is why the PN is a party of the past. People want certainty which only Robert Abela can offer. “People know where they stand with the Labour Party in government,” he said.
Camilleri and Attard both spoke at length about how the government distributed €800 million in assistance during the pandemic and had saved 105,000 jobs.
“If you didn’t do that then who could have done it,” Bartolo asked them rhetorically.