Riding on the poor performance of the outgoing Labour-led Mosta council, the Prime Minister yesterday blamed the failure on Labour leader Joseph Muscat.
At a public dialogue under a tent in Mosta’s main square, Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi urged people from the locality and all over Malta to open their eyes to Dr Muscat’s way of doing politics.
“Joseph Muscat advocates the politics of hiding problems not to create trouble but as a result people suffer,” Dr Gonzi said, accusing the Labour-led council of shirking its responsibilities.
Speaking in front of a sizeable crowd, he insisted that what happened in Mosta was a reflection of how the Labour Party would be governing the country if given the chance. In Mosta, which in the past had a Nationalist majority, the PN is trying hard to upset Labour’s apple cart and bridge the 400-vote difference that separated the two major political parties in the last round held five years ago.
Listing a string of failures, including the Mosta mayor’s disregard of a housing authority funding scheme to improve housing estates and the reluctance to use funds to upgrade the locality’s roads, Dr Gonzi insisted he could not understand why Dr Muscat did nothing to address his party’s problems in the locality.
Dr Gonzi accused the Labour leader of engaging in politics that was devoid of content and for the second day running ridiculed a Labour proposal to introduce free Wi-Fi access in public places, insisting this was already available.
Dr Gonzi listed a series of projects undertaken by his government in and around Mosta, including the new school at Żokrija and the locality’s foot-ball ground that was given a new artificial turf surface.
He concluded by urging Mosta residents to pick up their voting documents so that on March 10 they would go out and vote to give the PN a majority in the locality.
The crowd was also addressed by Justice Minister Chris Said and two young Mosta residents, who maintained the same line of attack on Dr Muscat and the Labour-led council.
In its reaction the Labour Party said Dr Gonzi should take stock of “the disaster” his leadership brought to the PN-led Sliema council “before preaching about good governance”.
“The Labour Party led by Joseph Muscat is different from GonziPN and shoulders responsibility,” the PL said, accusing Dr Gonzi of being obsessed with Mosta while ignoring other problems such as the “disastrous way” the PN-led St Paul’s Bay council was run.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com