The Labour Party said this afternoon that the government programme as announced at the State Opening of Parliament had a reconciliatory tone at times but it had to be viewed in the context of what actually happened in the past few weeks.

For it was this government which took suddenly took Malta into Partnership for Peace without notice or consultation, appointments to government boards were being made on the basis of political allegiances and transfers in the public services were also being made on a politically partisan basis.

MLP acting leader Charles Mangion said in a statement that the opposition would judge the government on what it did and not on nice words such as those in the President’s address.

Although the address did include a number of interesting proposals they were far too vague and the fear was that they would not implemented, as had happened in the past.

Although the government had promised economic, social and environmental progress, its record showed otherwise.

In the economic sector, productivity and competitiveness had slumped. The address included no new ideas in the areas and actually sounded pessimistic about the future. There were also no new ideas on how prices would be contained.

The promise to give priority to primary healthcare sounded hollow, given that this government had dismantled this sector. In education, Malta was still bottom of the Lisbon Agenda scoreboard.

In the environment sector, the government had no credibility, especially in view of the abusive decisions taken in the run-up to the elections. The same applied to the promises of good governance, given well known conflicts of interest and abuse of power, the MLP said.

The MLP would be constructive in its criticism, backing what was good and criticizing what was wrong in the national interest, Dr Mangion said.