The Prime Minister said today that the electorate trusted the PN four-and-a-half years ago to take the country forward and that was what he would continue to do.
He said during an interview on Radio 101 that he would do this even if it was more comfortable to call an early election and avoid responsibility.
Lawrence Gonzi said that as Prime Minister, he did not have the luxury to just concentrate on internal matters. Only the leader of the Opposition could do that.
His first duty, he said, was to see that Maltese workers had employment opportunities and to ensure that the country continued to progress and was not humiliated because he failed to take difficult decisions.
Dr Gonzi said that the Labour Party wanted to win the next election so it did not want to acknowledge that the Nationalist government was obtaining results.
It was true that internal issues also had to be resolved but Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had now resigned from the PN and it was time to look ahead and make the best choices for the country.
The legislature was coming to an end and the opportune moment would come when he would decide it was in the best time in the interest of the country to call an election.
He noted that were a number of laws which were very important and which he hoped would be debated by Parliament when it met again after the summer recess.
These included the cohabitation and IVF bills.
The cohabitation bill was now drawn up and would soon be published in the Government Gazette. The IVF bill sought to regulate the jungle that was already existent in Malta. This was urgent and important.
There was then another law to regulate Parliament and the whistle blower act. The pre-budget exercise was also currently going on.
It was true that the country was alienated with internal matters but one had to understand there were other important matters taking place.
Dr Gonzi said that the Opposition leader was promising everything to everyone behind closed doors. He challenged him to declare in the open what these promises were and said the PN would not allow Dr Muscat to play the game that had been played by Alfred Sant before the 1996 election.
Dr Gonzi also referred to his meeting with EU Commissioner John Dalli and stated he trusted the Commissioner of Police blindly to investigate the names of alleged hackers passed on to him but he wanted the result of that investigation to be made public.
The Prime Minister said that although it was not an easy time for the party, it was also a time of satisfaction as the PN in government was getting investment, it had created 20,000 jobs and 20,000 students had graduated from Mcast and the University in the past four-and-a-half years.
The PN, he said, should remain concentrated on its vocation, which was to work on matters that were of interest for the country.