Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday launched another passionate appeal for people to appreciate his government’s economic successes even as he warned supporters that Malta could still encounter turbulence.

“I come before you some days after the Budget, not to speak proudly about a great achievement but to say the crisis is still here. So let us remain united and brace ourselves for the waves that may come,” he said, closing the Nationalist Party’s general council.

“I don’t know what I can say to show you the importance of this historic moment,” Dr Gonzi said, adding that in his meetings with other European leaders over the past week he had realised how nothing could be taken for granted.

Dr Gonzi did boast about the Budget his Finance Minister presented last Monday, highlighting how it compared to some of the most drastic austerity measures being implemented across Europe. However, he also cautioned against feeling that just because Malta fared well in the economic crisis it was out of the woods and could therefore act more impulsively.

“Someone else wants to hide the truth but we do not. We will not be afraid of talking about existing risks. And we will not be afraid of taking difficult decisions,” Dr Gonzi said.

Lambasting his rival Joseph Muscat, he stressed that his government took decisions based on what was needed, not on how people “cheer or boo”.

Dr Gonzi slammed the Labour Party for its scaremongering whenever it reacted to decisions taken by the government.

He said the government had instead always ignored the Labour Party’s unfounded warnings and proved that they were consistently incorrect.

“He who calls himself progressive in fact wants things to stay the same,” Dr Gonzi said, recalling the Labour Party’s opposition to EU membership, joining the eurozone, building a new hospital, raising utility ­tariffs and privatising the ­shipyards.

He said the people’s sacrifices had ensured Malta was able to weather the storm but it did not mean the risks were now behind us. Tackling the deficit, he said, was a way of ensuring jobs, pensions, the children’s allowance and social benefits.

He said unlike other countries around the world who boasted of their economic stimulus packages, the government acted differently and reaped better results.

“We took advantage of the small size of our country and provided personalised assistance to those companies that needed it. And for every cent that we put in we are now getting back 10 times that amount.”

But for this sort of investment, choices had to be made, and the government had also had to respond to the rising price of oil by putting up the utility ­tariffs.

Election on their mind

Most speeches by MPs dealt with the seemingly distant election.

The government is like an old mobile phone which although not as fascinating as it used to be, still does its job well and is not worth replacing with riskier alternatives, according to backbencher Charlo’ Bonnici.

He was one of many MPs speaking on the last day of the Nationalist Party’s general council who seemed to have the next general election on their minds.

MP Robert Arrigo said “complaining” was part of being Maltese but the party “has nothing to be afraid of” in the next election if it continued to help those who were vulnerable.

MP Edwin Vassallo said the Labour Party’s libertarian politics put important Christian and family values such as solidarity at risk. He added that the worst danger faced by the PN was not losing power but losing its identity and values.

“Let us remember we are politicians not administrators. Although we have good direction we cannot abandon the people... Labour does not have what it takes to win the next election but we can still lose,” he said, calling on people to use the time left as effectively as possible.

Party whip David Agius said he took a priest’s advice recently to buy a book of parables for his daughter’s First Holy Communion. Waving the book around, he recounted the story of the silly man who built a house on sand and the clever one who built on solid ground.

In an indirect reference to his party’s as yet unfulfilled promise of income tax cuts, he said a diligent father must give his family what it needs not what it wants, even if he had made certain promises during different times.

He also said that in the next few years the party would be ready to ask the people to place their faith in it yet again.

MEP David Casa compared Joseph Muscat to his predecessor Alfred Sant and ended his speech by saying he thinks the PN could win the next election.

MP Beppe Fenech Adami said Joseph Muscat was simply hungry for power at all costs but if the PN continued to work hard over the past two years, it could earn the people’s faith once again.