The Prime Minister said this morning that the PN would take further action against Nationalist MPs who voted with the Opposition in parliament. "The issue cannot end here" he said.
He also said at a PN activity that the death of Mali immigrant in 'suspicious circumstances' in a Detention Service van was deeply worrying and he was insisting on a detailed investigation.
Replying to questions sent to him via myview.pn Dr Gonzi said the government would continue to insist on burden sharing regarding immigrants.
But every person, whatever the colour of his skin, his religion or political belief, deserved protection and dignity and all should stand up and be counted on such issues.
The government's position, he said, was clear. The government's first duty when it received a distress call was to rescue the people in distress and not to see what Italy did, or what journalists would write.
Where people's lives were concerned, Malta's first duty was to rescue them.
MALTA'S RED LINES AT EURO SUMMIT
On the recent EU summit, Dr Gonzi said this was a very important meeting and the agreement reached was very important for Malta.
He said that he had to take a firm stand on pensions and the cost of living adjustment mechanism, telling the conference two or three times that Malta disagreed with the proposed summit conclusions. In some cases, he said, such a firm line was needed.
All in all, he said, the eventual outcome of the summit was important for Malta and the eurozone.
Dr Gonzi recalled that Malta reformed the pensions system a few years ago and it was gradually raising the retirement age to 65.
However, the European Commission had recently told to Malta that the retirement age should be raised further. Malta disagreed with this. Furthermore, on the basis of life expectancy considerations, the same yardstick used by the EU, the retirement age would not need to be raised before another 30 years. The retirement age, therefore, did not need to be raised.
ACTION AGAINST MPs
Reacting to a question on the recent developments in parliament, Dr Gonzi said he tolerated criticism, but crossing a red line to vote with the other side in parliament was unacceptable.
As he had said, there would be political consequences. These were internal issues which the PN would deal with internally. The Executive had issued a statement condemning those who voted with the Opposition and the matter would not end there. Those who had acted in that way could not now act like nothing had happened and the PN needed to continue to address this issue seriously in the interests of the truth.
In the coming days the PN would continue its internal exercise to take whatever decisions needed to be taken, he said.
AIR MALTA - PRAISE TO RICHARD CACHIA CARUANA
Dr Gonzi welcomed the approval by the European Union of Air Malta's restructuring plan. He said approval of this plan was not easy and it was recently denied for another airline in circumstances similar to Air Malta's.
The success for Air Malta was a credit to many people. Among them, he said was Richard Cachia Caruana, and it was ironic that in the same days that Parliament approved an unfair and unjustified motion which amounted to a frame-up' against Mr Cachia Caruana, this important certificate of his capabilities was issued by the EU.
This was an example of how the PN needed to continue to work in the coming days to ensure that truth prevailed.
COHABITATION
On the cohabitation bill, Dr Gonzi said the law would bring in duties and responsibilities in various scenarios such as the case where two people lived together, had children but never married and then one of them moved out. He said the legislative proposals would be debated in Cabinet and after consultation would be published and then debated in parliament.
In other comments, Dr Gonzi said progress had been made in talks on a collective agreement for civil servants and he hoped the matter would be wrapped up in the near future.
He also reiterated the government's commitment to continue to help the self-employed