Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he was “informed” that Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat was promising people development permits.
“Meetings and dinners” were being organised where Dr Muscat promised permits, even though these might be problematic for the planning authority, Dr Gonzi said in an interview on party-owned Radio 101 yesterday.
Saying Dr Muscat was going to give a “new definition” to outside development schemes, Dr Gonzi referred to an interview with the Opposition Leader on The Sunday Times.
“I ask Dr Muscat where he is going because the interview confirmed my suspicions,” he said.
Among other things, the Prime Minister noted, Dr Muscat spoke about the need “for agritourism projects, which are hosted in fields, and, of course, these involve construction”.
“Will their environmental policy be influenced by these meetings” he asked.
Dr Gonzi questioned whether this was the party’s strategy. “Will Dr Muscat get the money to reduce the water and electricity bills from these meetings?”
Would there be environmental disasters similar to those under previous Labour governments, when a disco was built within the fortifications, he asked.
He referred to another article in the newspaper and pointed out that, while Maltese wages were below EU average, “our taxes are among the lowest”.
Greece was going through a hard time – yesterday the Greeks went to the polls for the second time in six weeks – and Dr Gonzi said it was a time of challenges that required great care.
“We generated 20,000 new jobs and saved others that were at risk, but I want people to understand that there is a threat that might remain for a while.”
Malta is officially in a recession after the economy shrunk “slightly”, even though the number of jobs increased, which Dr Gonzi described as “positive”.
“The truth is that we have to remain careful but I am optimistic about our future because the decisions we took were a strong foundation,” he said.
These decisions included investing heavily in education, through stipends, for example, where young people continued studying and eventually would start careers.
Recent statistics revealed the number of people who continued studying rose to 73 per cent from 51 per cent.
Dr Gonzi replied to criticism by Dr Muscat who, during a visit to Methode, said the firm wished to expand but could not because the government had plans for a disused site close by.
“Dr Muscat criticised the government because we have projects to implement. How I wish that our problems were only about factories that wanted to expand,” he said.
The Labour Party said Dr Gonzi was repeating lies about meetings Dr Muscat held with different sectors to alienate people from the “absurd” promises he made before the 2008 general election. Dr Gonzi should tell families what he had promised a developer in the north of Malta just days before the election, the party said.