Prime Minister Robert Abela was on Friday interviewed by a number of workers on the occasion of Worker's Day.

He was questioned by a nurse, a police sergeant, an assistant head, a farmer, an engineer, a port worker, a security consultant at the Malta Information Technology Agency, a Gozo Channel captain and a pensioner.

Abela spoke on the current situation and said the government had done a lot in the midst of COVID-19 to safeguard employment and save jobs through its aid to industry. These measures had benefitted 110,000 workers and 80,000 jobs were saved.

"We believe our businesses have to be up and running to restart the economy as soon as the country moves out of the pandemic, a day that is always becoming closer."

Replying to the workers' questions, Abela thanked all frontliners in the fight against COVID-19 and said the country was and would remain grateful for the exceptional service they were giving to safeguard the health of all residents in Malta.

“We cannot thank you enough.”

The government had invested in the health sector but without the human resource, the exceptional results achieved would not have been possible.

He said the people’s confidence in the police force had increased dramatically in the past weeks. This was understandable because the people were seeing effective policing which led them to obey the authorities in their attempt to control the pandemic.

On education, he said that as soon as the difficult decision to close schools was taken, the educational tools that had already been in place came into play with lectures and lessons being carried out in a virtual manner. 

The country quickly adjusted to the new reality and once schools reopened the systems currently in use could be combined with normal classroom teaching. Investment in education, he said, had to continue, as it was never enough.

Hospital's vote revealed government's hypocrisy - Adrian Delia

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia also spoke briefly on Friday night, appearing on the PN's TV station to slam the government for its handling of a parliamentary vote held on Thursday concerning the hospitals privatisation deal.

Delia said the debate “revealed the hypocrisy of government".

The vote concerned a motion presented by the Opposition to revoke the multi-million deal. It was rejected, with government MPs following the party whip and ignoring Delia’s calls to vote with the Opposition.

Delia said the government was trying to blame the PN for daring to criticise a bad deal.

“We have a Prime Minister who’s defending foreigners who are robbing us,” he said. 

“The people have realised that this government has one interest at heart – and it is not the interest of the Maltese people”.