Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi may insist that the country is not in election mode, but that did not stop him from launching a scathing attack on Labour leader Alfred Sant yesterday on the 10th anniversary of Labour's election victory.
"I don't want to attack Alfred Sant the person but the policies," Dr Gonzi said in a Radio 101 interview yesterday, just before going on to compare his performance with that of the Opposition Leader during Labour's 22-month stint in government.
"I respect him as a person and the fact that he decided to dedicate himself to work for the country."
Labour's 10th "anniversary," in fact, now forms part of a campaign driven by the Nationalist media.
Dr Gonzi said it was no excuse for Dr Sant to say that he did not have enough time to implement his policies while in government.
During this time, Dr Sant froze Malta's EU accession application and changed VAT to CET. The result was the largest deficit in Malta's history during two consecutive Budgets, an inflation rate higher than that at present, and higher unemployment.
Moreover, he denied Dr Sant's charge that the former Nationalist government had left a massive deficit problem. "It's a fallacy," he said, pointing out that audited documents clearly indicate that the deficit in 1996 stood at Lm103 million, a far cry from the Lm150 million registered in Labour's final year in power.
Dr Gonzi also reiterated a challenge he made in Parliament on Friday, asking what had become of Dr Sant's proposal to devalue the lira.
"Had we taken that advice - to devalue the lira by 10 per cent - we would have ended up paying 10 per cent extra when buying oil on the international market. And where would that have left us?" he asked. "What happened to that proposal?"
He charged Labour with jeopardising the SmartCity@Malta investment by using the issue in political football. But Dr Gonzi reserved his harshest criticism for what he argued was Labour's political opportunism on the utilities surcharge issue.
He said that he had been waiting for Dr Sant's explanation on how he would slash the surcharge, but, when it came, this was a huge letdown.
Part of the solution in Dr Sant's speech was not to charge VAT on the surcharge. "There is no VAT on the surcharge for regular consumers," the Prime Minister pointed out. "Businesses that are charged VAT on the surcharge claim it back."
"Now this is either a lie or incompetence," he charged.