Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today that the prime minister should explain how the foreign wife of former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia was granted a Maltese passport after two years when foreign spouses married to Maltese could only apply for a passport after five years.
He also questioned how the government had spent €2 million on offices in Shanghai for the Maltese consulate after having appointed Sai Mizzi, the energy minister's five, as consul-general in Shanghai - on top of her €13,000 a month salary.
Speaking in Sta Lucija, Dr Busuttil referred to plans for a university in the south of Malta. He said that the PN was the party of education and would therefore welcome investment that was truly for education. But he was concerned that the campus would be built on virgin land and would await more information about this.
Dr Busuttil hailed the gains made by the PN in the south of Malta in the local council elections. That was a signal, he said, that the people of the south were prepared to give the PN another chance if it was truly the party of the people.
"It is all about the people, the people, the people," Dr Busuttil said. The PN had to be the party of the people.
He said the people of the south had also sent a message to the government, They were saying they were fed up of its lies, dishonesty and abuse.
An example of lies, he said, was how the prime minister had claimed to have found a stagnant economy, when that was far from the case. Another lie was about the building of a new power station in two years.
The present government, after two years, was still inaugurating projects which were the result of the PN government's vision, the latest, tomorrow, being the new Parliament, the first home for democracy that Malta had ever had. This should not be the home of MPs, but the common home of all the people, Dr Busuttil said.
He said he wanted to salute former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi for his vision in pushing this project through, despite so many obstacles. giving a home to democracy and new dignity to the city's entrance. It was also through his vision that another major project, the Oncology Centre, would be inaugurated soon.