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Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today that the government was failing in its most central promises - Malta Taghna Lkoll and meritocracy.
He said the government was being discriminatory not just with the Nationalists, but even those Labourites who were not close to the party's inner circle.
Speaking at a PN conference in Gozo, Dr Busuttil said the government had still not said how much the wife of the Energy Minister was earning from her post in the Far East.
While those close to the Labour inner circle were enjoying themselves, Malta was seeing creeping unemployment.
In the EU, unemployment was going down, in Malta it was going up. This when under the Nationalist government, Malta had done well despite the economic storms in Europe.
This only showed sheer government incompetence.
It was incompetence which was also reflected with yet another legal notice to govern the citizenship scheme.
The PN had won the argument on this issue. It had called for the elimination of secrecy, for a direct investment link and a period of residence. All had now been introduced.
But problems were persisting. The government had agreed to have one-year effective residence for applicants. But the government then said applicants would not need to be here for so long.
Furthermore, it was only the main applicants who were being required to live here for some time. Their families did not have to. They could receive their passport by post.
The PN would present amendments to the legal notice to ensure that the government respected what was agreed with the EU. All applicants for passports should be required to live here, at least for a year, and those who did not observe requirements should lose their passport.
Dr Busuttil said the government could not argue that the legal notice could not be amended, when the government itself had amended it three times, and issued the latest one with a mistake on the period of residence.
The truth was that as soon as the PN said something, the door was slammed in its face, but it had consistently been proved right throughout this issue.
It was a 'lie' Dr Busuttil said, that the government had offered the EU the same proposal on citizenship as it offered the Nationalist Party. It was for that reason that the PN had revealed how Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia had actually said in the party talks that if even one day of residence was required, he would resign.
Now the PN was waiting for him to be a man and keep his word.
ALFRED SANT'S COMMENTS
Dr Busuttil referred to speeches made at the Labour general conference, and said he was concerned by the 'us and them' attitude to the EU. Somebody (Alfred Sant) had called for relations with the EU needed to be refreshed. He had also said that people constantly told him how right he had been on his arguments about the EU ahead of membership.
So by 'refreshing' did he mean taking Malta out of the EU? Had he retained the same mistaken ideas of 10 years ago?
Labour should be concerned that its number one candidate for the European Parliament elections was saying he was right in the EU membership debate 10 years ago. He wanted to keep Malta out of the EU, and now he wanted to enter the European Parliament.
His advice to Dr Sant was to refresh his own ideas, Dr Busuttil said.
And it was wrong of the prime minister to allow such people to contest the election since the likelihood of Dr Sant's election would harm the country and further isolate the country in the EU.
Concluding, Dr Busuttil urged his supporters to persuade former Nationalists that the PN was being transformed and could be trusted once more. They should tell those who were suffering unfair treatment and transfers under the government to keep their dignity and their hopes.
They had to show that the PN was the party of ideas which created jobs without selling its soul or its principles.