€1.2 billion EU funds, ‘hardly used by Muscat,’ will help finance PN electoral program – Busuttil
Funds from the European Union amounting to approximately €1.2 billion that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has “hardly started to use” will be one of the sources financing PNs electoral program, according to Nationalist Party Leader Simon Busuttil.
Dr Busuttil was answering a question in a debate with journalists from different media groups, as part of the Broadcasting Authority pre-election programs.
The party’s bountiful program, alongside their plan to maintain a balanced budget, has raised questions as to how it would all be funded.
Dr Busuttil was asked how the Nationalist Party would manage to cover all the costing that the party is pledging to implement if elected, whilst at the same time keeping a balanced budget, and whether money from the IIP scheme would be used to finance the program.
“There is money to use,” Dr Busuttil reassured. “If nothing else, we have funds from the European Union which we had negotiated for before the last elections. There are €1.2 billion that have hardly been tapped into by Joseph Muscat’s government during the past four years,” he said.
The Nationalist Party’s electoral program includes cutting income tax to 10% for those earning up to €20,000, and €10,000 to young couples who relocate to Gozo, amongst others.
Dr Busuttil said that money saved from ‘corruption’ and ‘abuse’ will also amount to a significant amount. “For example, instead of giving four million euro to Café’ Premier, I would build a new school,” he said.
Referring to the what he called ‘abuse’, Dr Busuttil mentioned that the cost of the government cabinet of Joseph Muscat – largest one in history, constituted of 23 ministers and parliamentary secretaries - was €100,000,000. The hundreds of positions of trust were also costing the taxpayer millions of euro. He also pointed to instances such as the cost of the privatization of the three public hospitals which cost €70,000,000 a year.
The Opposition Leader added that a decrease in tax on small businesses and self-employed will result in the Government experiencing a financial gain rather than a loss. “Whenever we have cut the income tax on people in businesses and those self-employed, instead of losing money, the Government gained money,” he said.
During the program, Dr Busuttil was also asked by a PL media journalist whether he believes that his ‘negative publicity’ regarding the ‘mafia’ in Castille affected Malta’s reputation abroad.
Dr Busuttil responded by saying that Joseph Muscat is not Malta and that he is criticising the government in order to ‘clean’ it.
“It is the message not the messenger,” he said. “Do not close your eyes to corruption,” he told the journalists. “Joseph Muscat is not Malta, and criticising Joseph Muscat is not criticising Malta.” He added that he spent years in Brussels raising Malta’s name. “I am criticising Joseph Muscat because I don’t want to see Malta in the gutter,” he said. “When we criticise the corruption it is because we love Malta and want to see it politically clean,” he said.
Towards the end of the session, Dr Busuttil spoke about how the party has progressed and opened with regards to conservative ideals such as LGBTIQ rights. He explained how he is against civil liberties where it comes to rights of life, such as abortion, euthanasia and embryo freezing, saying he is “not ready to touch” such issues where one is “playing with the rights of life.”
He went on to mention that under the Labour Government civil rights which he “took for granted, are not there now,” referring to journalists’ rights to protect their sources. He said that when it comes to discussing rights of life issues within the PN/PD coalition, where there are things that are not agreed on, the members will “sit around a table and discuss”.