EU accepted Malta’s budget ‘without hesitation’ – Muscat

Malta’s budget has been accepted ‘without hesitation’ by the European Union, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in Parliament yesterday as he was reacting to the speech given by Opposition leader Adrian Delia on Monday.

The prime minister took aim at Delia throughout the evening, bombarding the Opposition on a number of issues.

He also expressed his disgust at the hate speech spread on social media by some members of the public, following the Ħal Far riots. At the same time, however, he said told foreigners: “You are welcome, but you have to follow the rules like everyone else.”

Turning to the economy, he said that “Maltese and Gozitans believe that the country is moving forward,” Muscat began, and said that the budget will look to reward those working families who deserve it, to help those in need – the most vulnerable, the pensioners, and those who are disabled and cannot work.

Muscat noted that he was expecting Delia to mention his buzzword from the previous week – that being that the budget was “recycled”. In fact, Muscat said, the budget is recycled – with the term recycled here being used positively. He questioned why changes should be made to something which is successful, noting that the “recycled” measures include a third budget without new taxes, and measures which give back to the people.

Another part of the government’s economic legacy will be how they have managed not to leave bills for our children and their children, Muscat said before adding that when they had first been elected they inherited a debt of 78 per cent on the GDP, and that it now stands at 40 per cent without any new taxes being raised. “In real terms this is over €185 million debt less,” Muscat said.

He said that when Delia had said that no licenses for blockchain businesses had been issued, he had shown that he does not know the difference between a blockchain company and a cryptocurrency one; there are 17 VFA companies licensed, five system auditors, and 145 companies offering services as exchanges and wallet advisers, he said.

Addressing criticism that Gozo was merely an afterthought, Muscat said that the budget for the sister island had been increased by 20 per cent, and that Gozo’s economic growth rate was two per cen more than that of Malta.

Muscat then turned to Delia’s remarks on foreigners in Malta; “Maybe he tried to tow the line so that he could please everyone,” he said before noting that the government is not going to play a game pitching Maltese against foreigners. He said that the Opposition should not play with “near-xenophobic” remarks.

He said that the number of foreign workers had tripled under the last two PN administrations and yet, contrary to what PN’s line of economic thinking seems to be, the economy had not boomed. He also noted that the PN leader had misquoted a Central Bank report on the length of stay of EU nationals in Malta.

“This is why this side of the room is trusted; the other side has no credibility,” he said.

Another argument that Delia had said, Muscat noted, was that foreigners are coming to Malta for cheap labour. Muscat said that only 18 per cent of foreigners come for elementary work, and that many others come in as skilled labour – where there is a skills gap and where the country does not have enough people to fill those jobs. He said that in general there is no cheap wage phenomenon, even though there may be particular sectors which are feeling this.

Continuing on the subject of immigration, Muscat thanked the armed forces, the police, and AWAS workers. He moved on to a statement issued by the PN about the goings on at the Ħal Far Open Centre, which asked for answers from the government.

He targeted the Opposition for the nature of the questions, where they listed Ħal Far as a detention centre as opposed to an open centre, which it actually is; “this is the amateurish way in which this is being tackled by the PN,” he said.

He said that the incidents at Ħal Far were not a question of nationality and were condemnable, and can never be tolerated; “everyone has to follow the law,” he said.

“It could have been a man like me from Burmarrad or a man from Sudan like some in fact were – they broke the law, and now they must face the consequences,” he said.

He lambasted comments online, which seemed to indicate that everyone now wants to kill black people and noted that he had checked a screenshot which had been circulating on social media which said that a woman is at ITU after being beaten at Ħal Far, “an assertion which is completely untrue,” he said.

“Like I said when Lassana [Cisse] was killed, I will say it again – to defend our country we need to learn from other country’s mistakes,” Muscat said, warning against the winds of populism.

Swapping to English, Muscat addressed those who are foreign, saying that he “would like to make it very clear to everyone, all those who are here as asylum seekers, but also those contributing to economy with full rights, I assure you that the ethos of the Maltese is that of a welcoming people. We need to make it clear that the rules are there for everyone. Yes, you’re very welcome to be among us, but yes you have to follow the rules like each and every one of us.”

He then mentioned several measures which the government will be introducing which pertain to workers; such as free childcare, cutting the tax bands on overtime, and an extra day of leave for workers, while also noting the increase in pensions that had been announced for the third time in a row. He went on to list various budgetary measures on housing and speaking about the government’s work on rental reform.

Muscat referred to Delia’s assertion that everyone would have a house under their government; “The PN has had to sell its own clubs; how can people take the idea that everyone will have their own house seriously,” he said, prompting mass indignation from the Opposition benches.

“We will start taking the PN’s plans seriously when they can plan a mass meeting or flower planting ceremony,” Muscat said to more shouts, referring to the PN’s poorly attended Independence Day mass meeting and its disastrous attempt at placing a flower wreath at the memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia, where they were confronted by the assassinated journalist’s sister.

He discussed the PN’s notion that poverty was increasing, saying in fact that various reports had shown that this is not the case, before shooting off a number of measures that the budget is introducing to bring more people in.

He turned to the climate, saying that this is not only an environmental issue but also an economic one. He added that the government has 35 measures in the budget to start preparing the country in this regard, and had started by closing the oilpowered Marsa power station and was now moving to dealing with transport.

What is important is that there be a “just transition”, Muscat said before adding that with cars now the prime polluter on the island, priority is being given to making public transport free. A ship-to-shore facility will also be introduced to continue reducing emissions from cruise ships.

Speaking about the desire to move from a linear economy to a circular economy, Muscat praised the measure to ban single use plastics and said that this product will not be tolerated.

On the Gozo tunnel, he questioned what the Opposition was thinking, considering that they had already voted in favour; “Our manifesto reads that the Gozo tunnel will be done, and it will be done by this government,” he said.

Concluding, he called on everyone to remain united like the government has done, for Malta to keep growing together.

Adrian Delia

Opposition leader Adrian Delia, in a press conference following Parliament, said that Muscat had not answered questions the PN had put to him, ”despite him saying that he would.”

Delia criticized the government’s response to the riot at the Ħal Far Open Centre, insisting that the people were worried before, and are still worried now.

He said that Muscat decided not to focus on the real problems such as the high cost of living, and the property and rent prices. He did not talk about fixing these problems but instead gave a guarantee that these issues will keep on growing “This is unlike the Nationalist Party who said that they will guarantee that the people will have a roof on their head.”

Delia also noted that the prime minister did not talk about early school leavers, and that whilst he boasted about investments in education, there was still a teacher shortage.

He also accused Muscat of ignoring low-income workers when they would complain about cheap labour brought from outside the country, or the banking sector. He accused Muscat of ignoring the middle class, who Delia said were not given any hope through this budget

Delia maintained that the Nationalist Party cared about these sectors and wants sustainability, whilst the prime minister did not give any reassurances as to how Malta will look to the future.