Updated: PN will not be destroyed - Foreign Minister

Nothing had destroyed the Nationalist Party in the past and nothing would destroy it now, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said this evening.

Closing the first session of the Nationalist Party's general council, Dr Borg said that challenges, some of them internal, kept coming but the PN knew what it meant to suffer for its principles and would not lose heart.

He referred to a statement by Labour leader Joseph Muscat earlier this week accusing the Nationalist Party of burying its European and democratic credentials.

"There were those who, in Malta, reviled the principles of democracy, who did not accept the people's verdict - not once but twice.

"Only Labour governed against the will of the majority in 1981 and it was the PL's current leader who had celebrated the partnership's victory, in spite of a different result in the referendum," Dr Borg said.

He said that the people contesting the current leader for the PL's leadership had described his behaviour as a grave insult, irregular and against all ethics.

Foreign Minister Tonio Borg

Dr Borg spoke about the situation in Europe saying the past four years were tough with millions of jobs being lost because of the financial and economic problems, which also affected the prices of oils and cereals.

Some countriess had been afraid to take difficult decisions others reaped the rewards of their serious work and the courageous decisions they took.

In Malta, the Nationalist government took tough decisions placing people and families in the centre of its policies.

Working with employers, unions and educational institutions, it created 20,000 jobs at a time when other countries were experiencing record unemployment and daily street protests.

The PN also reduced income tax, carried out restoration projects and created open spaces for families to enjoy. All this cost millions and it was only possible through EU help, which Malta had access to only because it was a member.

Dr Borg said that 130 factories were set up in Malta in four years, several records were set in toursim and 20,000 students graduated from Mcast and University.

The government €1.5 million daily in education and €1 million a day in health.

The Nationalist government was also investing €23 million a year in stipends but the Labour MEP aspiring to be Finance Minister was already saying this system was unsustainable.

Dr Borg warned that it was dangerous to be obsessed with wanting to "win the government", as Labour was, because mistakes through which the party and the country would suffer could be made.

"To serve the country should never be an obsession but a duty," he said

Dr Borg said that more than 170 bilateral agreements were signed in the past four years, none of which were secret or shameful. Because of its serious and credible foreign policy, Malta was respected by all.

At the beginning of his speech, Dr Borg paid tribute to late President Censu Tabone.

Opening the council, PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier said that more than 1,000 people took part in an hour long live webchat on the PN's website mychoice.pn, set up to strengthen dialogue with the public.

He said that, at one point, more than 650 people were communicating with the Prime Minister at the same time. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi also answered 1,200 questions and suggestions.

Dr Borg Olivier said that in the past months, the PN strengthened its internal organisation structures.

Dialogue meetings were far more open and participatative, with constructive criticism, which the PN should take on board being made.

He encourgared the people to talk to the party more saying "your smallest idea may turn out to be the party's greatest one".

"We are not reinventing the wheel, nor are we all things to all people - and being that way would be wrong," he said.