[attach id=254140 size="medium"]Education Minister Evarist Bartolo called on the Opposition to examine its conscience. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier[/attach]
Government speakers yesterday rejected the Opposition’s criticism of President George Abela’s speech at the inaugural session of this legislature.
Foreign Minister George Vella did not approve of the insults directed at the Office of the President, pointing out that the Opposition could not declare it would be constructive in its criticism but then behave destructively.
Dr Vella called for all MPs to show a fraternal spirit. The President’s speech showed that the Government had no intention of rendering the opposition irrelevant. He appealed to the “aggressive” section of the media to exercise self-regulation.
Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said it was incorrect and unfair of the Opposition to say that the Government did not have an EU or economic policy, or that it did not care about job creation, tourism and Gozo.
Mr Bartolo described as hysterical Jason Azzopardi’s attack on the Government in Parliament on Monday. The Opposition was duty-bound to scrutinise the Government but it should also have the decency to examine its conscience if it really wanted to renew itself and examine what led to its electoral defeat.
Carmelo Abela said the Opposition had failed to mention that the President’s role had been damaged when President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami addressed Nationalist supporters at a pre-election meeting.
One needed to put the President’s speech in perspective and keep in mind that it had been read out after a long political campaign and not in a vacuum. The speech reflected the type of politics which the people had voted for and this was rightly included in the agenda.
The Opposition, however, yesterday kept the tempo of its critique.
Tonio Fenech urged the Government to start implementing its electoral programme and warned that investment could go to other countries if the correct steps were not taken. The first decision taken in the budget was to increase the deficit target from 1.7 per cent to 2.7 per cent instead of focusing on serious spending priorities.
While the Finance Minister had argued that Malta would not be subjected to the excessive deficit procedure, the European Commission had a different opinion.
Carm Mifsud Bonnici called on the Government to give priority to fostering relations with Libya through long-term planning on business, industry and other sectors. He recalled that the Libyan crisis was a challenging diplomatic test and the decisions taken had been of benefit to both countries. He had even defended Libya during EU meetings.
He also said that it was unjust to say that the Nationalist government had neglected relations with non-EU countries. Dr Mifsud Bonnici also advised the Government to give top priority to the employment sector to keep its momentum going.
Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici, Labour MP Michael Falzon and Nationalist MPs Paula Mifsud Bonnici and George Pullicino also contributed to the debate.