Updated 9pm

Malta should aim to become a global technology hub capable of attracting the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech argued on Monday.

In an hour-long speech held on the eve of Independence Day, the PN leader also accused the Labour Party of stealing his party's ideas and challenged his counterpart Robert Abela to a debate. 

"You pick the date, time and moderator," he said. 

Investment

The PN leader argued that Malta needed to significantly improve the quality of foreign investment it attracted. 

“We need to attract strong international investment. Not the likes of Ram Tumuluri or Sadeen (Group), who are only interested in taking,” he said – a reference to investors behind a hospital privatisation deal and the American University of Malta.

“Internet giants are currently based in Ireland. We want to bring them to Malta. Malta can be a technology hub,” the PN leader said, arguing that the country could build on its basis as a financial services sector to attract that niche.

“We will attract money and work – but not dirty money,” the PN leader said.

'Labour copying us'

Grech laid into the Labour Party, saying it was copying the PN’s ideas, and then trying to mock the party.

He cited a series of proposals which he said the PN was the first to propose – from revising quarantine rules to building a second interconnector, offering COVID-19 vouchers or promising an air link to Gozo.

“They call us negative, but they are the ones who find problems with every solution we propose,” he said.

“If they’ve already given up, then it’s time for them to make way for us to carry out our concrete plans, he said.”

Grech challenges Abela to debate

Grech challenged his counterpart Robert Abela to a debate – “you choose the time, place and moderator” – which he said would serve as the basis of a “mature discussion” about the country’s political future.

“I will be there,” he said. “Instead of copying the Nationalist Party, come talk to us. I am sure you will learn something and we are ready to learn from you.”

'Big fish get away'

Grech said that people were well aware of the problems Malta faced as a result of Labour’s poor governance, such as the country’s FATF greylisting.

It was the small fry that was paying the price for this corruption, he said, while the big fish got away.

Grech laid into his counterpart Robert Abela, who he said was born with a silver spoon and could not relate to the struggles the average family faced.

“This is a weak prime minister,” he said. “I don’t trust him. The Nationalist Party does not trust him. And even if it’s in the quiet of their own homes, every day more and more Maltese are not trusting him.”

He also accused Abela of being a puppet.

“Robert Abela does not have the courage to dissociate himself from his master or his master’s wife,” Grech said, in reference to Joseph and Michelle Muscat.

Muscat, Abela’s predecessor, admitted in a Times of Malta interview that his wife had actively campaigned for Abela to become prime minister over deputy prime minister Chris Fearne.

Attendees at the PN rally. Photo: Jonathan BorgAttendees at the PN rally. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Environment

Grech described the PN’s environmental vision as a “clear and coherent” one that would lead to a “green revolution” for the country.

The PN has proposed, among other things, to map trees across Malta, increase pedestrian areas and increase public access to green spaces.

He disavowed secret investment deals to grant developers green areas to develop, saying the PN was not interested in deals such as that given to Sadeen Group to build a campus at Zonqor Point.

That deal has since been put on hold following massive public pressure and the weak performance of the group’s American University of Malta.

Health

He said Malta should also be more ambitious in the health sector, pledging to create a cancer research centre in Malta.

Grech also reiterated other Gozo-centric health proposals the party has made: to create an air link between hospitals on the two islands, to build a new hospital in Gozo and to provide chemotherapy and MRI services in Gozo.

Labour had been promising an air link for seven years and failed to deliver, he said, warning Gozitan voters not to be duped by PL promises.

'We must work for change together'

Appealing to both Labour and PN voters who felt alienated from their government and their party, Grech urged people to come forward and join the PN’s “movement for change”.

“If you are a Labourite and you feel betrayed, take heart and join us. If you, like us, know that things need to change, come on board and let’s do it together,” he said.

“Even to those Nationalists who no longer feel included, come and work with us.”

“The fight for our jobs, justice and liberty is something we have to work for every day, for ourselves, for our country and for our children” Grech added, calling back to previous PN electoral slogans.

“We must choose Malta. Without you we are nothing, but with you we can build the Malta we’ve always wanted.”

A return to the Granaries

The PN typically hosts a week-long celebration to mark the public holiday that marks the end of British colonial rule on the island, finishing events off with a political address by the party leader.

But large-scale celebrations have been conspicuously absent from the party’s roster of late, owing not only to the COVID-19 pandemic but also due to a period of internal struggle within the PN that culminated in the ousting of Adrian Delia as party leader last year.

In 2020, pandemic restrictions did not allow for any sort of mass event to be held and Independence Day came just four days before PN members voted for a new party leader - an election that Grech won

One year prior, under Delia’s leadership, the party chose not to host a rally at the Granaries, opting instead to organise one in front of the party headquarters in Pietá.

It was only the second time that the rally was not held at the Granaries since 1982, with the other exception being in 2015 when the PN held its event in front of the then newly inaugurated parliament building in Valletta.

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