Talks for Alitalia to become an Air Malta strategic partner and 49 per cent shareholder are proceeding at a strong pace, but the deal will not go ahead unless it is beneficial for the Maltese airline, the prime minister said.

"Every side in talks pulls towards its interests, we will not go bowl in hand to Alitalia, we will seek our interests, and if it suits us we will go forward. If not, we will look elsewhere," Dr Muscat said.

He said on Radio Malta’s Ghandi xi Nghid programme that the outcome of the talks is expected to become clear in a number of weeks once current studies are concluded.

He would not be hostage to the clock or to the EU, although EU rules would be respected, Dr Muscat said. 

The prime minister denied that the airline had asked the courts to ban industrial action at Air Malta. What it had requested, he said, was a ban on actions which were out of proportion. "I cannot stop any trade union from exercising its constitutional rights," Dr Muscat said. But in pay talks in the current situation, a strike could be counter productive and put people's jobs at risk.

Questioned on the economy and living standards, Dr Muscat said salaries were rising faster than inflation, but the government wanted to address the problems of those people who were not seeing an improvement in their quality of life.

He expressed concern that food prices increased by 16 per cent over the past four months and said the authorities were keeping an eye to prevent abuse. In contrast, he said, families had seen a drop in their utility bills, public transport costs for the elderly and the cost of school uniforms.

The authorities, he said, were keeping an eye on rising rents. They had also noted the Caritas comments on the inadequacy of the minimum wage.

Measures would be taken in the Budget to improve the lot of the least well off, but it was not a simple matter of raising the minimum wage because many of those in poverty did not work. And one could not raise social benefits in a way which reduced the attractiveness of employment. 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.