Simon Busuttil yesterday said it was “all hands on deck” at the Nationalist Party so it would bolster its structures and become a strong and determined Opposition.
“It’s time to look forward and that is what we’re doing. We are putting our house in order first to make sure that the party can respond once again to the people’s aspirations,” the PN leader said.
“If our foundations are not strengthened we will not succeed. That is why we are making it a priority to re-engineer the party.”
Dr Busuttil was speaking in Marsacala during the first of a series of activities leading up to the traditional Independence festivities.
He described the internal decisions being taken as “hard but necessary”.
Many of those who had given long years of service to the party were being asked to make sacrifices but he was sure that in the long run these decision would produce results.
Turning his focus to the political situation, Dr Busuttil said the recent police blunder of arraigning the wrong person had diminished the people’s trust in the police force.
Criticising the results of the inquiry conducted by the Police Board, he said the public still could not understand how it was possible for the board not to investigate the wrongdoers but put the blame on the person who fixed the mistake by arraigning the right person.
He harshly criticised Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit for obtaining phone logs of the victim of a police blunder and for stating that he would now conduct an internal inquiry on what went wrong.
This only confirmed, Dr Busuttil said, that the Police Board’s inquiry was carried out for the wrong purpose and warned the commissioner that the PN would not let him commit any acts of political victimisation.
“People are rapidly losing trust in the police and the commissioner is warned that the PN will not let this happen.”
He said Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia should bear political responsibility for the blunder, as Labour used to preach before the election.
The Nationalist leader also appealed for the Family Park at Marsascala to be re-opened, saying there was no real justification for its closure.