Robert Abela has vowed to keep on fighting for Malta’s interests in the wake of a European Court ruling against the government’s golden passports scheme.
Addressing Labour’s annual May Day mass meeting, the prime minister accused Opposition figures of rubbing their hands with glee about the damage caused by the ruling.
“You have endangered people’s jobs,” the prime minister said of Opposition members in Brussels who “write in English or give interview in controlled environments”.
Abela told the crowd that funds from the citizenship-by-investment scheme had gone towards charities like Puttinu Cares and the Hospice Movement, and helped saved band clubs from eviction.
“We reinvested money from this programme into you. Others endangered all this because their egos only allow them to think about their own careers, and not about their country,” Abela said.
Half a billion in investments
Abela announced during his speech that between this year and next, investments totalling half a billion euro will be completed.
The prime minister said companies like ST Micro Electronics, Baxter, Lufthansa Technik, Magro Brothers, Actavis, James Caterers and Gimas are all expanding.
He said these companies, some local and other international, chose Malta as they believe in the country’s potential and stable environment.
Abela said the government now has the luxury of picking and choosing which investments it wants to go far.
Labour supporters packed into Merchants Street, Valletta. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli.He said the government will focus on quality investments to lead to jobs with strong pay and conditions.
Thanks to these investments, the government will be able to continue distributing the country’s wealth and investing in people.
By contrast, Abela accused the last PN government of sounding the death knell for Malta’s manufacturing industry.
The prime minister heralded the “economic miracle” overseen by Labour since returning to power in 2013.
Abela claimed that under a PN government, there were seven people chasing every single job opportunity.
This situation has now flipped on its head, with seven jobs available for every person.
“Other European leaders ask us how we manage to do it. I always answer in the same way. Although we have no natural resources, we have the best possible resources, the Maltese and Gozitan workers,” Abela said.
Vision 2050
Abela also touched upon the government’s recently announced vision for 2050.
He said that while economic growth will remain important, other metrics such as workers’ wellbeing will be at the centre of this vision.
The prime minister said this vision does not distinguish between Labourites and Nationalists, but rather on a united Malta.
Abela accused the PN Opposition of standing in the way of progress.
He warned that despite 12 years in Opposition, little has changed within a Nationalist Party that is characterised by infighting and hurling insults at others.
Over the years, the PN has often resorted the baseless scaremongering, like claiming that business will be forced to pay back the COVID-19 wage supplement or the subsidy on energy tariffs is not sustainable, Abela said.
The prime minister said that not only has the government hit its financial targets, but has beaten them.
He announced that the government will be distributing the second tranche of an additional cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) payment will be paid in June.
Families can benefit from a maximum of €1,500 yearly. With this second payment, the government would have distributed almost €50 million in additional COLA payments, Abela said.
