Workers had to make do with a meagre €2.33 weekly pay increase while the government’s dodgy power station deal lost the nation €200 million every two years, Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia said on Saturday.

“Minister Konrad Mizzi boasts that this theft is a form of ‘best practice’, and that’s a guarantee that he will continue to rob us in other contracts,” Dr Delia said as Solidarjeta Ħaddiema Partit Nazzjonalista held its national conference.

Dr Delia said that the Electrogas power station deal was costing taxpayers €200 million extra every two years. That money, he said, could have given 3,200 waiting for social housing a home and 70,000 in poverty a stronger financial footing.

The PN leader also expressed concern about the growing number of foreign workers moving to work in Malta, saying that the influx was allowing cheap labour to rear its head.

Proper social change, Dr Delia said, had to start with a proper, fact-based plan which allowed wealth to be well-distributed throughout society.