Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said this evening that the Nationalist Party was working to give the people the real change they wanted, after having been let down by Joseph Muscat’s promises before the general election.

Speaking at the PN’s Independence mass meeting, this time held near the Parliament building in Valletta, Dr Busuttil also reiterated his party’s call for an independent inquiry into the way residence permits for foreigners were issued last year.

“In one year alone, 14,000 residence permits were issued – that is as much as the number of migrants who arrived 10 years,” Dr Busuttil said

As if the situation was not worrying enough, it was recently revealed that  there was corruption in the way the permits were issued. It was a situation, he said, which had security implications and was also harming Malta’s reputation abroad, giving the impression that this was a ‘loose’ country where one could get a permit as long as he paid or bribed somebody.

Therefore, the PN would continue to insist for an independent inquiry.

Dr Busuttil spoke briefly about the importance of Independence, achieved 51 years ago, but said he wanted to focus on the present and the future.

At the last general election, he said, many people were duped to voting Labour after being promised a change for the better. The opposite had happened.

True, the economy was continuing to do well, but the government needed to forge into new sectors to ensure that growth was maintained.  Also, the distribution of wealth needed to be fair, not focused on a few.

Change under the present government was for the worse in many areas. People were dying in the hospital corridors, security in areas such as Paceville  had deteriorated, the people were spending more time stuck in traffic jams, the only change in the bus service was a tripling of the state subsidy to the operator, fuel prices had remained high despite the drop in the international price of oil, and the reduction in the price of electricity did not mirror the drop in oil prices.  The new power station promised within two years had not materialised, although the PN would continue to insist that the power station was actually not needed.

Labour had promised a better environment, but building permits were being issued everywhere for Labour to settle its obligations. Mepa was being split in half to give ministers more control over building permits.

Shop owners had seen their government rents rise. Many entrepreneurs did not even bid for government contracts because this was a government which said it was pro-business but then discriminated.

Meritocracy, transparency and good governance had gone out of the window, as evidenced by many public service appointments, vindictive acts against many people, government contracts which remained under wraps, and the way how the government was closing its eyes to institutional corruption.

The Nationalist Party was promising justice for those who suffered injustice, Dr Busuttil said.

He said Malta has a government which lacked principles, which sold everything and sought to buy everyone with scant consideration for ethics.

He hit out at abuse by MPs and other officials given several posts and multiple sources of income and said the ‘anything goes’ attitude had taken root. Many felt it was easier to break the law than to observe it.

Dr Busuttil said he was therefore urging more people to join the growing number of PN supporters so that together they could forge an alternative government that would bring real change and make Malta truly ‘taghna lkoll’.

He said he was promising an honest way of doing politics, clean government, European standards instead of mediocrity, opportunities for young people, a fair society based on solidarity, proper protection of the environment, including the countryside, and promotion of the national identity and culture.

The Nationalist Party had shown in the past two years that it was changing and was bringing about change and it would be the change that the people wanted, Dr Busuttil said.

The mass meeting was also addressed by PN deputy leaders Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami.

Dr de Marco said the mass meeting was a celebration of how the PN had always shown confidence in the people, and it was the party which made the country master of its own destiny. Independence was a state of fact which needed to be lived every day. Under the present government, several bodies including the AFM, the police, Identity Malta, PBS and Mepa had their independence undermined by the government. Holders of public office needed to remember that their loyalty was to the people and they would be required to give account. They would also be made to pay for their mistakes. They should not fear doing their duty in the national interest, and they must not allow themselves to be gagged when there was wrongdoing.

Dr de Marco hit out at the termination of the appointment of cardiologist Albert Fenech. The government, he said, had wanted former  Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca to continue to operate when he shouldn't have, and then it stopped Prof Fenech when he could have.

Dr Fenech Adami urged the crowd to be proud of the Nationalist Party. He invited them to reflect how it was only the PN which celebrated Independence throughout the past 51 years. Others tried to disrupt it.

It was the PN which built the country's institutions, infrastructure, housing estates, homes for the elderly, the tourism industry, the financial services industry. It was the PN which led Malta into the EU.

The PN would continue to reveal  the government's scandals as it did about Australia Hall, Cafe' Premier, the dealings with Azerbaijan, the €13,000 salary to a minister's wife, and how a convicted person was given an €80,000-a-year job in Brussels, among others.