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Seven days to go for general elections
By MaltaMedia News
Mar 1, 2008 - 7:24:47 PM
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On Saturday week, Malta goes to the polls. While PM Gonzi outlined his government’s past achievements and future goals as well as Dr Sant’s failures and ‘frightening’ proposals, Opposition leader Dr Alfred Sant attacked the PM by revealing a second government document on healthcare fees.
Dr Sant also accused Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando of corruption over a MEPA development permit granted for a discotheque on land in Mistra owned by the PN Member of Parliament.
 In a press conference in Vittoriosa on Saturday morning, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi claimed that while the government led by him had not been perfect, the balance of results was very positive.
PM Gonzi outlined some of the major successes achieved by a Nationalist government namely EU accession and euro adoption, a four per cent economic increase, a low deficit of 1.62 per cent, the highest rate of foreign investment ever, the highest rate of people in employment and the lowest rate of unemployment in twelve years as well as the creation of over 20,000 jobs within four years.
Meanwhile, PM Gonzi said, in his short tenure in government ten years ago Dr Alfred Sant freezed Malta’s EU accession application, increased government deficit, increased water and electricity bills, cost of living and added a series of 33 taxes. He also opposed the liberalization of telecommunications and low cost airlines and proposed the devaluation of the Maltese Lira by 10 per cent.
The Nationalist Party’s main proposals for the next five years are to maintain solid finances and to register a surplus by 2010 and to make the most out of EU accession. The party is also offering measures which will continue stimulating economic growth such as the widening of tax bands, the removal of departure tax and a change in car resgistraion tax. On the other hand the MLP’s proposals for the next five years are frightening, Dr Gonzi said while mentioning Dr Sant’s declaration of reopening the EU accession package, the halving of surcharge, the removal of bonus and a tax on second properties.
Meanwhile in a press conference in Gozo, Dr Alfred Sant revealed a second government report on healthcare fees. In the 2005
Preliminary National Report on Health Care and Long-Term Care presented to the EU, PM Gonzi had proposed the setting up of a national health fund to finance the public health sector, which fund would be a sub-fund of the Consolidated Fund, financed in part by health social security contributions. The report states that other potential sources of income could include hypothecated taxes, government grants and ‘miscellaneous fees’.
The Prime Minister should apologize to the people since he lied when he declared that it was untrue that the Cabinet had discussed changes on healthcare fees, Dr Sant said. The report had said that the Cabinet had agreed in principle to introduce healthcare fees but that they were not to be introduced at that moment because of political underpinnings.
In a counter reply on Saturday afternoon, the government said that the Leader of the Opposition arrived to wrong conclusions on the document which is public and available on the Health Ministry’s website.
“After being presented to the Social Protection Committee (European Commission Committee) in April 2005, the report had been made available on the Commission’s website for a long time,” the DOI press release stated.
The government also retaliated that the ‘miscellaneous fees’ that Dr Sant mentioned are none other than payments made by foreign patients and companies who make use of services. These fees have been on the government’s budget for a munber of years including when Dr Sant was Prime Minister ten years ago, it concluded.
 On Saturday, Dr Sant also accused Nationalist deputy Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando of corruption over a permit granted by MEPA at Mistra for the development of a discotheque for 4,000 people which can be extended to 8,000 people. The land under question is owned by the Nationalist MP.
Speaking at Mistra, Dr Sant described the development at the area which supposedly cannot be developed as an ‘obscene scandal’.
In an article on
The Times on Saturday, Dr Pullicino Orlando himself referred to the plot of land which has been rented out to third parties. “Three years ago, these others applied for a permit to build an underground lavatory and an open-air dance floor less than two metres high. The application has been pending all this time and no final decision has been made. I don't even know the applicants. I have never met them. And, yet, my Labour Party sources tell me that Dr Sant imagined that this would be a great scandal; the one that will cripple the government in the penultimate week of the electoral campaign.”
Update: The Malta Environment and Planning Authority said in a statement Saturday
evening that a full development permit for an outdoor entertainment facility in
Mista has not been granted.
Such a permit is subject to approval of an application by the
Malta Tourism Authority for embellishment of Mistra. According to MEPA, the MTA Planning Directorate is recommending a refusal. For more details, including pictures and videos of the electoral campaign 2008, see MaltaMedia's special feature on the 2008 Malta General Elections.
© Copyright 2008 by MaltaMedia.com
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Latest update:
Mar 3, 2008 - 8:52:54 AM CET
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