Updated: PL to protest against utility rates

The Labour Party will be demonstrating against the water and electricity tariffs during its Freedom Day activity on March 30.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning that now that the party's motion in Parliament had been debated, the PL would not be stopping there and its next step was to take to the streets.

For it did not make sense that when the cost of oil was high, people received bils amounting to €185 and now, when oil cost about half what it did then, their bills amounted to €290.

When the vote on the motion was debated it came to 33 voting against the PL's motion, 31 for with the PL ending with a minority of two instead of one.

Dr Muscat said this was because Marie Louise Coleiro and Joseph Sammut were abroad on Parliamentary work and the other MP, who he did not name, got caught abroad in a 10-hour delay. It was a genuine case but it was still being moved for consideration by the party’s national executive.

On the St John’s Co Cathedral underground museum project, which has now been shelved, Dr Muscat said the government was not convinced that this should not be done but had preferred a walkover to losing the parliamentary debate.

The Nationalist Party, he said, had lost its previous unity with at least two to three MPs opposing every issue. He referred to a speech he made a few weeks ago when he had said that two ministers had said, during a private meeting, that pressure had been made on public officials regarding the project and that this was being carried out because people involved knew how to play the game.

Dr Muscat said that he had appealed to the two minsiters to say when they meant when they made these declarations. Although he felt that he had given enough time, Dr Muscat said, no one had come forward sohe would be doing what he had to do, he said.

When asked about illegal migration, Dr Muscat said he was convinced that had a vote been taken in the parliamentary debate some days ago, the government would have lost but this would have reduced the debate into a partisan one.

As Opposition leader he wanted to show that this was a national issue that should be debated on a national level. Dr Muscat said that at the moment there were around 5,200 illegal immigrants in open and closed centres although there could be more who got lost in the system or left the country.

The crucial point, he said, was legality. The situation was becoming tense and residents in Safi locked their doors when they heard helicopters flying low.

The Labour leader proposed the setting up of a Parliamentary committee which would visits the closed and open centres and draft its own reports so that when foreigners came and pointed something out, this committee could respond. Moreover, it was imperative that responsibility for the sector was not divided between different ministries.

Dr Muscat said that had the government not signed the voluntary burden sharing agreement, the message would have been made that the Maltese did not allow themselves to be taken for a ride. EU could not retain old fashioned regulations which put the burden on border countries, he said. The Prime Minister seemed to be scared to taking a strong stand in the EU but if he wants a clean conscience, he should submit the issue to a referendum.

The Labour leader was being interviewed by the editor of l-Orizzont Frans Ghirxi.