Opposition leader Simon Busuttil insisted this morning that the PN would continue to fight the 'citizenship for sale' scheme because it struck at the heart of what made the people Maltese.
Dr Busuttil, who was speaking at Safi PN club, said the Norman Vella case last Sunday was a serious case of abuse of power.
It was unacceptable in a democratic society that somebody was arrested and interrogated for four hours on the basis of a report which was an invention. And even worse, it was the Commissioner of Police himself who defended this abuse in court, further confirming the PN's view that the Police Commissioner was unfit for purpose and should step down.
Dr Busuttil continued his attack on the 'citizenship for sale' scheme. The PN, he said, would defend Malta's citizenship. The scheme which the government had proposed was a disgrace. The government was selling the country's soul and everything that former leaders had worked for, such as George Borg Olivier, who achieved Malta's independence, Dom Mintoff, who made the country a Republic and always said that Malta came first and foremost and Eddie Fenech Adami, who gave the Maltese their European citizenship.
Joseph Muscat never worked for such citizenship and did not appreciate it.
Selling citizenship was wrong in principle, and one needed to be lacking principles to sell Maltese and Operand citizenship after first campaigning against European citizenship.
It was a shame that the names of those who were given Malta's citizenship would not be revealed. And it was also a shame that the same company tasked with promoting and processing applications for citizenship would then grant such citizenship.
Dr Busuttil said the Opposition remained ready to cooperate on an investment scheme, but not the sale of citizenship. And it would not be intimidated by the government's threats and insults. If no progress was made, a future PN government would withdraw the citizenship of those who benefited from this scheme and drop the scheme, Dr Busuttil said.
"This matter will not stop here. We will continue to fight it. This goes to the very heart of what makes us a people, what makes us Maltese," Dr Busuttil said.
THE BUDGET
On the Budget, Dr Busuttil said this would be government's first opportunity to explain its economic policy. The people would be able to judge whether the government had any ideas of economic growth and job creation. One would see what Dr Muscat's kinder sorpresa was.
One would also see if the government would keep its electoral promises.
And would the government fix what it so strongly criticised the former government for, such as out of stock medicines? What about hospital overcrowding, which had increased under this government?
Would the government refund VAT on vehicle registrations?
Would the government give tablet computers to schoolchildren? Would childcare services be free and available to all?
And, Dr Busuttil recalled, Labour had promised that it would not increase taxes. Would it keep that promise?
Dr Busuttil said that since the general election, the government had thought only of its own supporters and relatives of ministers. Now one hoped it would think of the ordinary people.