PN repeats call for Miriam Dalli to resign over power cuts
'Dalli should shoulder political responsibility for the ongoing power outages'
The Nationalist Party has reiterated calls for Energy Minister Miriam Dalli to resign in the wake of widespread power outages that affected thousands of households and businesses across Malta over the past weeks.
Last week the PN tabled a parliamentary motion of no confidence in Dalli, describing this summer’s outages as a repeat of the crisis of 2023.
Addressing journalists outside the Energy Ministry on Monday morning, the shadow ministers for energy and the economy, Mark Anthony Sammut and Darren Carabott, repeated the call for Dalli to “shoulder political responsibility” for the blackouts.
The outages were far from over, they argued, pointing to several streets across the country which remained without power on Monday morning.
Some areas had been without any electricity supply for a week, they said.
Sammut accused the government of trying to shift the blame for the outages, with Dalli first seeking to downplay blackouts at the start of last week’s heatwave, and Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday called on Enemalta to speed up works to strengthen Malta’s power grid.
“The primary responsibility is the government’s, especially Miriam Dalli’s,” Sammut said. “She was responsible for the €140 million spent to address this issue”.
Carabott, likewise, described the outages as "a consequence of a lack of planning,” with devastating consequences for businesses, residents, workers and even prospective investors.
“This is time lost from the country’s productivity,” Carabott said.
Sammut and Carabott said the PN had yet to receive any reply to its request for its no confidence motion to be placed on parliament’s agenda immediately.
“If this is ignored, it means that Robert Abela is afraid of a debate on the topic,” Sammut said.
An emergency debate on the power cuts was held in parliament at the Opposition's request on Monday last week.
Sammut and Carabott also called on the authorities to introduce automatic compensation for residents and businesses impacted by outages, as well as special compensation for Enemalta workers who, they said, “are shouldering the weight of the government’s lack of planning”.