In 2013, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat handed over a staggering €4.2 million to the Café Premier owners. That was a scandal – bailing out private business using taxpayers’ money.

It remains so. Nothing has changed.

That was, is and remains the position taken by the Nationalist Party. It will not change. A spade must be called by its name. You don’t compromise with what is fundamentally wrong. On matters of principle, the Nationalist Party is not for turning.

Never was. Will never be.

When the Nationalist Party first became aware of the backroom deal, not only did it call it shameful but insisted that both taxpayers’ money and property should be enjoyed by the people.

Back then, the government accused us – and law-abiding citizens shocked by the backroom deal – of being “negative”. If crying foul over a scandalous deal paid for by your taxes is “negative”, then we proudly wear that medal on our chests. But we know, as do the people, that standing up for what is right is what the common good demands – and what is expected from us.

The government – not that it willed it but because the PN insisted, coupled with a public outcry – relented and gave the Café Premier premises for a public purpose: the seat of the Valletta Local Council.

It also invested a substantial amount of taxpayers’ money, this time money well spent, to upgrade the premises for them to serve their purpose.

There is widespread consensus that a capital city’s local council deserves, as is the practice in all European cities, an appropriate seat at the heart of the capital. I stated this when I was invited for the inauguration of the premises.

Unfortunately, the justified political controversy could and should have been avoided. Not by the Nationalist Party closing an eye to what was, and remains, a scandalous deal, but by the government refraining from squandering taxpayers’ money to bail out individuals and, instead, putting money where the people’s mouth is. That is what the common good demands, and that is what responsible governments do.

Which explains why, at the inauguration ceremony, I emphasised the need for broad consultation when such matters arise, for that is what law-abiding taxpayers demand.

On matters of principle, the Nationalist Party is not for turning

The Nationalist Party is willing to contribute on matters which have the common good as their sole purpose.

It shall, however, come down like a ton of bricks when public interest is sacrificed to benefit the few. That is a no-go area for the Nationalist Party, and we shall never compromise on it.

That, too, is our consistent opposition to the granting of a large parcel of land at Żonqor Point, Marsascala, to a dubious investor who promised a university “hosting thousands of students”, while, to date, there are barely enough to make up a football team.

It is why we’re insisting that the land at Żonqor be returned to its rightful owners: the people of Malta.

Unfortunately, the government seems determined to stand by the foreign ‘investor’ while ignoring the people.

The American University of Malta saga is rich in twists and turns. As I write, online news portals report that 12 of its teaching staff have been fired.

Just a handful of students, and teaching staff dismissed – that is not a very promising start to an ‘investment’ that was launched at a full-blown press conference addressed by the Prime Minister himself.

Should the government do what is right – return Żonqor to the people – it will have our support.

When Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia speaks of a new way of doing politics, this is it. And he’s not reinventing the wheel. What is wrong and shameful the Nationalist Party will not endorse but will criticise vociferously.

We will not stop there, for we have a duty to provide a better alternative to the present government. That calls for criticising and opposing what is wrong, and suggesting a better way forward.

On the Café Premier issue, that’s what we did. And that is consistent and what people demand. It is not enough to cry foul; we are not a pressure group but a government in waiting, and a government in waiting must provide alternatives.

In 2022, the people will choose whether they want more of the same or a change for the better. Our responsibility is to chart the way forward – a better way forward.

The country belongs to its people and its future generations.

It is not Dr Muscat’s backyard.

David Agius is deputy leader, parliamentary affairs, of the Nationalist Party.