Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning that Malta had a good relationship with all institutions, following a visit this week by MEPs raising concerns about the country’s rule of law.
Addressing a political meeting, Dr Muscat vowed to keep on smiling and working to build a better Malta for future generations.
Dr Muscat said he did not agree with the “siege mentality” being adopted by some people.
He said it was not even the Opposition that was applying pressure, but rather certain people within the Opposition.
The Prime Minister said the Opposition was in a sorry state. He said if the new Opposition leader followed in the footsteps of Simon Busuttil, it would reap the same results it had in the recent past.
Drug laws
Dr Muscat vowed that the government would not brush off “anomalies” within new drug laws, after Xarabank brought to a light a case about a reformed drug user facing a jail term.
William Agius was caught trafficking drugs near a closed school on a Saturday.
The Prime Minister said that while “stories from the papers” did not lead to sleepless nights, as he knew he was in the right, a case like kept him up at night.
He said the new drug law was designed to be reformative rather than vindictive.
Air Malta
On Air Malta, Dr Muscat said the airline had this week been given a big push forward towards the road to success.
Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi announced this week that the airline was projecting to break even by March 2018.
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This week Times of Malta reported how Air Malta had gone from a roughly €4 million annual loss to a whopping €13.1 million loss last year.
Dr Mizzi blamed this loss on a three-year fuel hedging agreement that saw the airline paying much higher prices for its fuel than the average market price.
The Prime Minister said today that all unions had a responsibility to convey the message that Air Malta had a future, which was based on growth rather than wage freezes and cost-cutting.
Dr Muscat said the government was guaranteeing Air Malta workers’ jobs and salaries. This was break from past negotiations under PN government, which he said were characterised by wage freezes and cost-cutting.