Opposition Leader Bernard Grech spoke of the need to work for new freedoms on the eve of Freedom Day.
During a political activity on Sunday, Grech described Freedom Day as “an important step which came after other important steps,” he said, mentioning Independence.
“It is true that we are celebrating the freedom that occurred in 1979. But let us reflect on the realities of today,” Grech said. He spoke of the lack of freedom felt today, and the need to work for new freedoms, “the freedom of our institutions from control of a government that fears the truth, the freedom of the meant to be public broadcasting service, used for propaganda by government.”
“Freedom for the people who today have money in hand, but must request permission to withdraw from the bank. There are people who need to use substantial funds but have to go with a notarial declaration to take money out of the bank. This is not the bank’s fault. This is the fault of a Labour government that tarnished our country’s name and our country’s reputation.”
“What freedom is it if you as a government worker don’t feel comfortable leaving a like or commenting on social media? What freedom is it if you are a police officer or inspector and not allowed to investigate as you are meant to? What freedom is it if inside your own country you cannot stand and say what you feel because we have a Prime Minister who attacks you in parliament and also tries to censure you. We can disagree, we can always use better words which are more respectful, but the truth is that this is a government that wants to shut everyone’s mouths. So let us work for the new freedom that the people need. Freedom that you can enjoy your money, that you can live better, that you can have a government that only thinks of you, to have a government that gives the best healthcare system, to have a government that is there to work for your quality of life.”
During his speech, Grech also spoke of the cost of living.
“A statistic came out which showed that the cost of living kept increasing and the government, instead of focusing on addressing this problem, is lost in seeing how it can create propaganda, trying to silence us in Parliament and control the institutions.”
He said that the PN not only gave government the solutions to tackling the cost of living, but presented them in Parliament. “But the government is more interested in piques than it is interested in helping you, and so it discarded these solutions. These solutions had come out of discussions we held with people, experts and the social partners.” These proposals, he said, included not taxing the COLA, and giving tax credits to employers to make up for the increase in the COLA they need to give.
“We also suggested the creation of a national fund to help in importation and exportation, so that the increases would not be passed on to the consumers.”
“Everyone agreed with us. We are on one side, with the constituted bodies including the General Workers’ Union, and on the other side the government stands on its own and voted against these motions. That is the Labour government, lost in piques instead of being focused on helping you.”
Grech spoke about the government’s plans to tackle traffic. “Finally at least they are recognizing there is a traffic problem.”
“When we saw their proposed solutions, we realized that we had long proposed some of the, while others were slightly changed. But the government did not address the true cause of traffic in the country, which is the increase in population. So what will happen? The problem would ease for a bit, but then it will bring in 35,000 people next year and this year, and the problem would continue.”
He said that this is a tired government “with a weak prime minister that is not focused on your problems. a government that promises a lot but gives nearly nothing.”
“Where is the metro? They spent millions before the election to try and convince that it was going to happen, and it is now not even a footnote in the big plan they revealed.”
“Instead of solutions, we saw stolen or recycled or stolen proposals, or things that were meant to happen but are hidden.”
He hit out at the Prime Minister, over his statements on investment in EU defence. “He says one thing in Malta and says the opposite in Brussels,” Grech said. “This is a prime minister who speaks according to the audience and only says what he thinks benefits him at that moment.”
“He has not only lost credibility in Malta, but abroad also,” Grech said. “He knows that what he is saying in Malta because he is populist, he cannot repeat in the EU Council. Instead of going there and voting against investment in defence, as he said in Malta, he goes there and votes to spend billions in defence.”
Grech said Abela did well to vote in favour. “The question isn’t whether he did well to do so or not, but is why he is saying one thing in Malta and in Brussels another. The answer is because you are weak, without principles and without direction,” He told Abela.
He said that in Parliament, “The government says it doesn’t want to spend on arms and defence and wont use EU funds for it, when in fact that is what it was doing, spending millions of Euros for us to have better defence. It is good it did. Again the question isn’t whether it is good or bad, it is about being honest in what you say and do.”
Grech said that attacks today could be in the form of cyberattacks. “Attacks today are not only to arms, but could be over the internet. So is it bad for the EU to spend millions for us to have more security? Malta should do the same. So did the government do wrong spending millions of EU funds on a partol boat in which there are arms? Did the government do wrong to spend on training for soldiers and the police? That has to be done.”
Grech said that Malta is already participating in a military function with regard to Ukraine, reminding supporters of the case where a Maltese soldier is participating in a mission in Ukraine.
“The people are fed up with a prime minister who either doesn’t know what he is saying, or if he knows what he is saying is lying to the people,” Grech said.
The PN Leader said that he recently spoke at an EPP summit. “I made the case for Malta that while we agree that we continue working for peace with dialogue, we also need to invest in defence as the EU. A person who is forewarned is half armed, and if you are armed, you are prepared to defend yourself. Do we not want other countries to defend us if another country invades us? What would we say then, that we are neutral leave us alone? We would say we are neutral but come and help us as we are European and believe in sovereignty as other countries believe.” He said that he insisted that as a neutral people, “while we believe in dialogue and agree that there should be investment in defence, we also believe that our neutrality must be protected. That is why an amendment I insisted on having safeguarded the neutrality of our country. That EPP position was put forward to become part of what the Prime Ministers agreed to, including Robert Abela.”