The government has moved away from its Christian Democrat ideals back to “far right” tactics, according to Labour leader Joseph Muscat.
Speaking in a radio broadcast yesterday, Dr Muscat mentioned three instances where the government had ditched its Christian Democrat ideology and gone for a far-right approach.
Among these was the “political cleansing” of the Enemalta credit control division, where a “persecution” was taking place and employees not close to the Nationalist Party and the management were being “disposed of”, Dr Muscat said.
All this started when Charles Magro, an employee in that division, claimed works he had carried out at Finance Minister Tonio Fenech’s home were being done as a favour from the contractor who had employed him.
Dr Muscat said he was informed that an Enemalta official had admitted that the people were being transferred and gotten rid of because they were General Workers Union members.
“This merits an investigation, because it confirms how much Lawrence Gonzi’s government has lost the social roots, built by his predecessor, and how the social and industrial policies of this government are now those of the extreme right.
“Gonzi has gone back to a politics of the extreme right,” the Labour leader insisted.
He made a similar assessment of the government’s handling of the Air Malta restructuring. By asking employees to forfeit the “last in, first out” clause, the government was pitting long-serving employees, newcomers and unions against each other.
“The government is trying to create a schism between workers and their unions. This is a far-right tactic,” the Labour leader said.
“We’re not going to be accomplices of the government,” he said, referring to Labour’s participation on the steering committee which is meant to oversee the airline’s restructuring.
Dr Muscat also criticised the alleged link between the “supposedly independent” Malta Resources Authority and the Resources Ministry. According to the Labour Leader, Minister George Pullicino had admitted instructing the authority what to write in a letter addressed to Dr Muscat.
“The minister had just said that he could not publish MRA data because it was independent. And now we have an authority which is in cahoots with the government or part in the government. How can I ever trust the MRA? The MRA should say what kind of relationship it has with the government. This kind of behaviour is that of an extreme right government,” Dr Muscat said.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry categorically denied that “decisions taken on the basis of political colour were being taken”.
It said that when the Automated Revenue Management System was set up as the billing arm for Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation, employees at the Credit Control Section had the right of first refusal for employment in ARMS, but after refusing they had to be redeployed in other sections of the company.
The ministry also denied wanting to choose workers in Air Malta on the basis of their political allegiances, saying this was typical of the Labour Party in government.
In a statement the Resources Ministry insisted that the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) functioned independently from the government. The fact that the ministry was informed that the MRA had invited a delegation from the Opposition for a presentation on the mechanism of how the price of gas is worked out did not mean that there was interference in the workings of the authority, the ministry said.
It added that the Leader of the Opposition, who boasted of being in favour of transparency, had tried to hide the invitation which the MRA had made more than a month ago.
It would have been better for the Leader of the Opposition had he accepted the invitation to be well informed about this mechanism so that he would avoid making mistakes when he spoke about the subject, the ministry said.