Efforts to restructure the Nationalist Party to make it more inclusive and closer to the people were already bearing fruit and last month’s local council elections, in which it made inroads in Labour strangleholds were a testament to this, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said yesterday.
“Contrary to Labour’s expectations that the PN was a spent political force reeling from the landslide defeat suffered in the last general election, we showed that we are back in business,” Dr Fenech Adami said.
The PN deputy leader was speaking during the opening session of the party’s general conference, which will come to a close tomorrow with an address from party leader Simon Busuttil.
Dr Fenech Adami said people were slowly regaining trust in the party, even those who had voted Labour hoping things would change for the better.
Contrary to the PL’s expectations, we showed that we are back in business
He pointed out that midway through its five-year term, the Labour government had only managed to finish a long list of major projects unveiled under the previous PN administration, such as the new Parliament, the inter-connector and the Fort St Elmo restoration.
“On the other hand, it failed to deliver on its major promise, which was to construct a gas-fired power station within two years if it was elected,” Dr Fenech Adami remarked.
Touching on the controversy regarding the proposed university campus outside a development zone in Marsascala, the PN deputy leader said the government had managed to create a movement against it, including from Labour MPs and councillors.
He lashed out at the Prime Minister, accusing him of trying to deceive the people by disguising a real estate project from Jordanian investors as a US university.
Dr Fenech Adami also remarked that Labour’s promises of meritocracy and good governance had also gone out the window. He noted that several Cabinet members were facing an increasing number of allegations of wrongdoing, which fuelled suspicions of corruption.
He referred to Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, saying it was unacceptable that a member of government had instructed Enemalta to try to seal a hedging agreement with a company from Azerbaijan.
The PN deputy leader also noted that a year and a half after the controversial appointment of Dr Mizzi’s wife as special envoy in China, no tangible results had been achieved.
“This means that her monthly €13,000 salary was just money down the drain,” he said.