Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today that Labour had been able to win the general election, but it had not prepared itself to govern and lacked the skills to do so.

How else could anyone explain how the government was planning to grow the economy simply by selling citizenship? Or that it was reducing unemployment by employing 1,000 people itself?

This was also the government which was tackling hospital overcrowding by erecting a tent.

All this showed a serious lack of ideas and mediocrity in administration, Dr Busuttil said when speaking at a PN political conference in Xaghra.

He said the Labour Party had led the people to protest over fuel price increases, then soon after taking office, it raised the prices itself, and those who protested at the time were now silent.

It was useless boasting that prices were stable once they had been raised. 

On public transport, Dr Busuttil said it was clear that the government had intended to force Arriva out. Would the same happen for other companies? 

What had been agreed with Arriva? The Opposition would continue to insist on publication of the contract. It would also continue to ask how much the government would now pay for the bus service.

Dr Busuttil said one worried about how the government negotiated with Arriva.  Transport Minister Joe Mizzi had been quoted as saying that the government had not wanted to take over the bendy buses - presumably to keep the price down - but then the government found that those buses were still in the contract.

So what had happened? All this showed incompetence, Dr Busuttil said. 

On the citizenship scheme, Dr Busuttil said the PN was continuing to oppose it because it was against the sale of citizenship in principle, and also because the mechanics of the scheme were not good for Malta.

Dr Busuttil noted that even the head of the socialist group in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, had been critical of Malta's scheme, saying it eroded European values.

But this was no surprise since Labour never showed appreciation of European values, Dr Busuttil said.