Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg said that the Labour Party is in a “state of panic”, and that it is becoming increasingly clear that this is the reason that Prime Minister Robert Abela called a general election a year early.
“The more days pass, the more we realise what the reason [for calling the election early] was: because you can see they state of panic that they are in,” he said of the PL, as he addressed supporters in Valletta.
The PN hosted a political event in the capital on Monday evening, with the party’s candidates on the 1st electoral district each addressing supporters. Also addressing supporters was veteran MP Mario De Marco, who bowed out of politics after 23 years in Parliament.
Closing the event, Borg said that throughout this electoral campaign, the PN has offered a clear vision, while the PL has been “reactive” and “copied the PN at every corner.”
“From Day One, we showed you that we were prepared and determined to fulfil what we promised,” he said, as he continued that the party had issued a set of targeted, realistic, and costed proposals every day.
“Every proposal came from the people, not from contrabandists or criminals,” Borg said, as a jibe at his Labour Party counterpart who accused the PN of having “Malta’s biggest fuel contrabandist” behind the party’s proposal to set up a fuel hub off Hurd’s Bank.
Borg ran through several of the party’s proposals unveiled so far in the campaign, stopping on the party’s health sector proposals – which were the first that it announced in this electoral campaign.
“Today they published their vision,” Borg said, in reference to a government announcement of a new masterplan for St Luke’s Hospital, the Gozo General Hospital, and the Boffa Hospital earlier in the day.
“I’ve lost count of which vision this is… one, two, three, four… the people are fed up of hearing about these visions: they want to see action, and it’s only a PN government which can give them that,” he said.
Borg also said that the party had made a clear commitment that it would make all cancer medicines free of charge – an idea which he said the PL had ridiculed, saying it wasn’t possible or would cost too much.
“Now, today, the Prime Minister said that they would do it too,” he said.
He said that prudence, stability and seriousness is sticking to one’s vision despite what others say, and that’s what the PN is determined to work towards: “a positive campaign which leaves an impact on everyone.”
Borg referred to several measures which the party announced for the elderly, chief among them a promise to increase pensions by €650 every year. He said that the Labour government had consistently been building on services and initiatives which were created by a Nationalist administration.
“Mudslinging is what pushes people away from politics,” Borg said.
“I want positive politics; to unite a nation and its people together. I believe now more than ever that this is our moment, and the moment to give a fresh breath to everyone,” Borg concluded.
