The Labour leader yesterday stopped short of calling for an early general election, insisting the Prime Minister had to make the "necessary decisions" to remove uncertainty and instability.
"The Prime Minister is in denial about the problems he is facing internally and which have now become the country's problems. Lawrence Gonzi has few choices before him," Joseph Muscat said during an interview on One Radio.
The Labour Party was ready to assume leadership and project vision, he added, in what appeared to be a hint at calling for an early election.
"I do not have to waste energy focusing on internal squabbles. My team is ready to lead. We will not waste time and if people give us their trust we will work to create jobs, fight corruption, safeguard the environment and bring back stability and prosperity," he said.
Dr Muscat referred to the embarrassment the government faced last week in Parliament when two votes had to be carried through with the Speaker's casting vote after it could not muster a majority when Nationalist MP Franco Debono left the building before the vote was taken.
Three days after a total media blackout and following a private visit to his house by the Prime Minister and his wife, Dr Debono said he left Parliament to convey a message that MPs had to be treated with dignity.
Dr Muscat said the problem was not Dr Debono but Dr Gonzi's leadership.
Dr Debono's actions, he added, were symptomatic of a wider problem created by the Prime Minister.
"Dr Gonzi burdened families with exorbitant water and electricity bills, allowed inefficiencies to grow, attacked those who defended the environment and now wants families to pay for healthcare," Dr Muscat said, pinning the country's problems on what he described as the Prime Minister's "patchwork leadership".
The Nationalist Party's internal squabbles had spilled over and were now creating a political crisis in the country, he said, insisting Dr Gonzi's "strong pair of hands have turned out to be hands of clay".
"I am seeing a government that is crumbling and a Prime Minister who has lost control," Dr Muscat said.
He hit out at the high water and electricity tariffs announced last week, which, he said, would worsen the economic problems.
"In one fell swoop, the new tariffs have wiped out any positive effect the Budget's stimulus package might have had," Dr Muscat said.
He spoke of a moral crisis created by the Prime Minister's defence of the Danish company that won the new power station tender and which had been involved in corruption cases abroad. Dr Muscat said even the consultants chosen by Enemalta and the Malta Resources Authority on energy matters, Lahmeyer International, had been blacklisted by the World Bank because they were involved in corruption.
Reacting to Dr Muscat's comments, the PM said the Labour leader ended this year in the same way he started it by being "negative, superficial and offering no vision".
"Joseph Muscat revels in allegations and fictitious stories, offering no vision and void of any political substance. Dr Muscat has confirmed once again how lightly he is taking his job as Opposition Leader, believing that politics is conducted with cheap comments intended to discourage people," the PN said.