The political lull of the past few months promises to abate soon as the Prime Minister yesterday said he expected “division votes” in Parliament in the coming weeks.

And as Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat asked Lawrence Gonzi to put an end to uncertainty and stop shying away from Parliament, Nationalist MP Franco Debono kept up the pressure on the Prime Minister through Facebook.

“The people of Malta are strong and industrious. They will survive the oligarchy,” Dr Debono wrote on his page.

“Lawrence Gonzi please note: No one should be buried in the miżbla, neither dead nor, even less so, alive,” he wrote, in an ambiguous reference to the non-consecrated burial ground where a number of Labourites were buried in the 1960s during the party’s battle with the Church and Archbishop Michael Gonzi.

Dr Gonzi made no mention of Dr Debono when he addressed the press yesterday to mark the fourth year of his legislature, listing the government’s achievements in job creation, education and health care.

He said the government generated 20,000 jobs in the past four years while consolidating its finances and facing one economic challenge after another and the crisis in Libya.

Malta was the EU country with the fifth lowest rate of unemployment and the second best rate of full time job creation. Expenditure in education and health continued to increase while governments around the world were making tough cuts.

The government was also investing strongly in infrastructure and the restoration of bastions and important buildings, including Castille, where the press conference was held.

During the Libya crisis, he said, Malta emerged as serious, mature and courageous, placing itself firmly on “the right side of history”.

Asked about the lack of votes in Parliament taken over the past three months, Dr Gonzi noted that some votes had in fact been taken, in cases where there was unanimous agreement.

He said there had simply been no divisions called by the opposition but he had “no doubt” these would come with the debate on the Budget Measures Implementation Bill, which began to be discussed before the Easter recess.

Dr Gonzi said he was confident the country was moving forward and achieving the desired economic and employment results.

“While we need to address all issues, we cannot afford to deviate attention from these things,” he said.

Asked about the recently hiked gas prices, Dr Gonzi pointed out that the tax on gas was at a fixed price, not percentage-based, so the government would not be collecting more tax from the prices that were increased by the Malta Resources Authority in response to international prices.

Dr Gonzi added that while the government must help families in need he did not agree that the price should be subsidised for “those who can afford to pay”.

Questioned about his chances of finishing a full five-year term in government, Dr Gonzi said he felt confident because his party had won this mandate at the general election and had delivered accordingly in spite of difficulties.

Addressing his own press conference half an hour later, Dr Muscat said Dr Gonzi had “learnt nothing” and had simply returned to boasting and self-praise despite having said only two months ago that he wanted to listen to the people.

“Instead of getting into people’s kitchens, as he said he would do, Dr Gonzi got on a plane and went on holiday,” Dr Muscat said.

He was speaking close to Triton Fountain with a backdrop of the bus terminus and the City Gate construction site. Dr Muscat described the new Parliament and the public transport reform as two failures by the government with a poor track record.

Labour yesterday launched a website (www.gonzi.pn) giving a calendar of the government’s failures and inviting the public to contribute their own experiences.

Dr Muscat said the Labour Party had been responsible not to call division votes on parliamentary discussions regarding Croatia’s EU accession and the Greek bailout.

However, the opposition felt that its motion on critical issues regarding justice and home affairs had to be discussed urgently and could no longer be postponed by the Leader of the House, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, who is also minister responsible for home affairs.

Dr Muscat said Parliament’s four-week holiday imposed by Dr Gonzi continued to reflect badly on the public’s deteriorating impression of politicians.

Meanwhile, finances continued to go “haywire”, he claimed, with €600,000 being spent every day on debt servicing, without anything to show for it.

“The government’s sums are not adding up,” he said, referring to the €40 million cut to the Budget, which was imposed by the European Commission.

Dr Muscat said the 7,000 jobs promised with SmartCity had disappeared from the government’s vocabulary together with the entire project and others, including White Rocks and Corporate Village.

In education, four of 10 children were still leaving school by 16 and, in health care, “management by crisis had deteriorated into just a crisis”, Dr Muscat said.