Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1516098
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 FEBRUARY 2024 7 INTERVIEW The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday.com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. Scan this QR code to see the full interview. You've stepped into this new role as shadow minister for finance at a time where in- flation and the cost of living are at the centre of many discussions. Firstly, what's the PN's vision in terms of the country's finances? Let's talk about inflation. Inflation is a problem where the Maltese are finding it difficult to keep up with the cost of liv- ing. We have a very high inflation rate. Our inflation rate according to January's figures was 3.7%, while the average EU inflation rate is 2.8%, so our inflation rate is one percent higher. When we see countries like ours, for ex- ample Cyprus, which has similar logisti- cal challenges, taking drastic measures to bring down the inflation rate to 2% less than ours... [we have to ask our- selves] what should we do to decrease inflation? Inflation is a complex subject, and so we need the best thinkers. An example of how we can lower inflation and the cost of living is by looking at how public funds are being spent. We've seen for a long time that government is wasting public funds. What's happening is gov- ernment outlines a budget for a project and then overspends by millions. The Ta' Qali National Park's original budget was €20 million, but now this has risen to €80 million, as was shown in the media. The AFM went €14 million over the original budget when it bought a patrol boat. We cannot keep wasting public funds. When we waste this much, you lose out on money that you can spend on subsi- dies. And so, when you have this waste of money, you cannot help to decrease inflation. They say that the elector- ate votes for the party that takes care of their wallet. The elections during the past 10 years suggest that the electorate trusts the Labour Party more in this regard. Do you think that the electorate has lost faith in the PN's capability to manage finances? Is Labour doing it better than the PN? When the PL got elected in 2013, we have to remember that we had about 25 years of PN governments; that's the first thing we must consider. Secondly, at the time, Joseph Muscat promised a lot of things. They used slogans like 'meri- tocracy' or 'the environment comes first'. They were good slogans, but we then saw that these were all contrary to… But when it comes to financ- es during the past 10 years there were no tax increases for example… I was getting to that. The PL chose to base its economic model on quantity. It was a model that brought results, the numbers show that economic growth did happen. But the problem was that we paid a price for that type of economic growth. We saw our quality of life declining after 2015. We were once in the sixth place when it comes to quality of life, now we're at 49th place. They say we're one of the worst countries in the EU to live in, there are the statistics that confirm this. So, if you tell me that with regards to our GDP we progressed, I will agree with you because the statistics back this up, but we're paying a price… It appears that the elector- ate will continue to choose to pay this price, if you look at our surveys… Not necessarily, there's a large chunk of people who've totally lost faith in politics and won't vote for either party. I think that is where an election can be won. There are reasons which I can un- derstand behind the lack of faith in pol- itics. We see scandals every day, people would tell you they're tired of constantly reading about corruption. On the other hand, we [the PN] must see why these people aren't joining us. It's obvious that there's still much to do from our end and we're determined to keep working to convince the people. The road is long, but we believe that we can succeed. Recently we've been seeing very unexpected news. We've seen Rosianne Cu- atajar who is likely to be back in the PL's parliamen- tary group. Don't you think government is able to pull this off because of a lack of a strong opposition? I disagree with you. I think Robert Abela is seeing that he is bleeding out support within the Labour Party, the hardcore La- bour supporters. That's why I think he's making these moves, by reintegrating these people who were involved in var- ious scandals. Frankly, what the Prime Minister does in his own party is his business. I'm inter- ested in the effect of this on the coun- try. We've just said that there is a large bracket of people who are disinterested in politics due to the numerous scandals we've seen. These manoeuvres are a disservice to the entire country because the more manoeuvres he makes, the more people involved in scandals he welcomes back, the more people who will lose interest in politics. Maybe that's the Prime Minis- ter's goal, to reduce the number of vot- ers in the election. I completely disagree with these manoeuvres from a national standpoint. I believe that the people should get out and vote and use their right because their vote gives them strength, and with this strength they can change the course of this country. I encourage all those people dissatisfied with the status quo to use their vote in whatever way they deem fit because it is their democrat- ic right to express their opinion on the country's current situation. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY