Prime Minister Robert Abela gave a very strong defence, underscoring his pride in delivering Labour’s promises with his “formidable team”. He said that Labour would remain a shield for the people in troubled times and guaranteed that Labour would continue to protect them.
The Prime Minister compared Malta to other European countries where turmoil is ongoing, stressing how Malta’s economy is still going strong thanks to the government’s measures.
He also said that all the measures announced in previous budgets, including the first-time buyers’ schemes, would continue.
Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Ian Borg announced a series of new projects including works at the emergency wards and a new psychiatric unit at Mater Dei. He also mentioned the Karen Grech Hospital project.
Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said that this is the best policy budget in his history as finance minister and said that the government’s approach is new and none of these new policies will harm the country. Instead, these policies will keep improving living standards.
He said other European countries are going through financial horror especially in terms of deficits and lending, but with the government’s measures, more financial headroom will be created in the future for even further measures.
During the press conference The Maltese Herald followed up on our question posed to the Finance Minister back in May about energy subsidies when the Finance Minister said that a transition off energy subsidies had to be made with renewable energy. We asked whether the Finance Minister still believes that renewable energy will potentially help lower electricity bills for households.
The question was taken on by the Prime Minister who said that the government had rolled out a plan towards further investment in renewable energy in its electoral manifesto but stressed that his priority as Prime Minister is to retain energy subsidies. He added that removing these subsidies would hurt many businesses and this is something he will be avoiding as long as he is Prime Minister, asserting this policy as one of his hallmarks.
Newsroom
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