Muscat Pledges He Will Pay Maltese People To Use Public Transport As He Delivers Scathing Indictment of PN’s ‘Credibility’
In what has become a roll-out of proposals ahead of the MEP elections, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has suggested eventually paying residents to use public transport as he laid out his vision for a free service in the country.
Muscat’s ambitious proposal formed part of a scathing assessment of the Nationalist Party at a political activity in Senglea, where he gave a point by point breakdown about why the PN had no credibility.
“Even those who do not agree with us (Labour), you know in your hearts we are a government that delivers on what we will say we will do. You know where you stand with this government”, Muscat said to a cheering audience.
He was incredulous at the PN’s approach towards the Gozo tunnel. Beyond including it in their 2017 manifesto, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said in this week’s debate that he would wait for studies to be published despite tunnel despite voting for the project already in Parliament.
“This is a question of credibility. Credibility is everything because, in politics, credibility is the currency, the most important quality. Anybody can promise anything,” he said explaining that the public never knows where to stand with the Opposition.
On the issue specifically, Muscat once again seemed to indicate that the rock excavated from the tunnel will most likely be used in a land reclamation project. He also criticised the PN for finding an issue with the construction waste behind the project when they proposed a metro system in the last general election.
Muscat has focused on placing this election as a clear dichotomy between the PN and PL, as he did last week when saying that the public had a choice between Delia or himself.
He was no different today, clearly laying out all the reasons why the public had become so disillusioned with the PN in the run-up to the 2013 general election, such as the high water and electricity bills, slow-moving laws and the number of promises made but was never seriously contemplated.
With repeated references to ‘genuine nationalists,’ it seems that Muscat is still targeting syphoning even more votes from the poorly performing PN.
Turning to people’s concerns about traffic, Muscat highlighted how 14,000 cars are released onto Malta’s roads annually, but maintained that his government is “are undertaking massive projects to improve and increase the capacity of Malta’s road networks”.
He slammed the PN’s metro proposal, explaining that clearly needed a bigger population to be a feasible project
An energetic Speech after a rocky week
Muscat appeared energetic and determined after a rocky week, where he was quoted as saying that he would rather see foreigners picking up Malta’s trash rather than Maltese, adding that he does not want a situation where Maltese people are breaking their backs to get by whereas foreign nationals are enjoying the benefits of the economy.
NGOs slammed him for not truly having socialist values while many commented that Muscat was alienating foreign nationals through his commentary.
Other announcements
Muscat announced a €2 million investment within Senglea which will regenerate parts of the locality.
He also called for the abolition of fees related to Matsec examinations.
