Although the Opposition is willing to come to a consensus with the government on the citizenship scheme, it was not willing to budge on the principle that citizenship was not for sale, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said.

Speaking during a dialogue meeting in Nadur this morning, Dr Busuttil said the Nationalist Party had been against the sale of citizenship from the very beginning and wanted this to be transformed into an investment scheme.

But its appeal for a consensus was ignored and bulldozed upon and the government passed the law from Parliament through its nine-seat majority.

Dr Busuttil said that responsibility for the damage already done to the country by the scheme had to be shouldered and asked who was to shoulder this responsibility.

The government, he noted, blamed the Opposition for reports against the scheme proposed by Malta in the foreign media.

But did anyone really believe that the Opposition was capable of controlling the world media, he asked.

Dr Busuttil criticised the government for allowing the law to be approved by Parliament before expressing a willingness to remove the secrecy clause.

In spite of all this, he said, the Opposition was still willing to come to a consensus and two meetings had already been held with the government in a bid for this to be reached.

Dr Busuttil criticised the government for not honouring the promises it had made regarding Gozo and criticised the Gozo minister for his declaration of assets which included an €800,000 loan against an annual income of €27,000 salary.

The minister had also ordered a Gozo Channel vessel to turn back to port to pick him up in Cirkewwa.

Dr Busuttil said that although the Nationalist government had not been perfect, it had certainly done a lot for Gozo and it would also be there for the island, he promised.

He said that the Labour government lacked a plan for employment, including in Gozo, it was not administering the country well and it was selling the country’s identity.

On the other hand, the PN believed employment gave the people dignity, it wanted a serious administration and it worked to strengthen and not to sell the country’s identity.