People want realistic transport solutions, 'not silly season politics' - PN - The Malta Independent

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The people expect mature politics from their leaders, "not silly season politics," the Nationalist Party said.

"Asked about the promise that Prime Minister Robert Abela pulled out of the archives on Sunday regarding the metro, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana yesterday said this was nothing more than part of the silly season before each election, when promises are made left, right, and centre. The Maltese and Gozitans demand far better than silly season politics and do not expect promises of projects which, in Caruana's own words, the Government cannot afford to deliver," the PN said in a statement.

"These types of promises have become so repetitive that they are now almost a joke - such as the promised racetrack which, election after election, the Labour Party keep pledging while leaving motorsport enthusiasts with nothing but false hope. This kind of politics is expired. People today can easily distinguish between smoke and mirrors and concrete action."

"It is regrettable that Robert Abela continues to exploit a problem he himself has greatly worsened - traffic - in order to score political points by once again promising a metro system which he had already pledged nearly four years ago. At the time, he spent over €2 million of taxpayers' money on pre-election promotion. Now he has brought this promise back to life, saying he will intensify studies for the project - in other words, plunging the people further into debt to commission further studies on something which his own Finance Minister has said would require billions of euro and which Clyde Caruana has clearly stated the country cannot afford" the PN said.

"After years of dropping the idea of a metro, four days ago Robert Abela, in a state of panic following the election of Alex Borg as Leader of the PN, brought up the project again and resumed making promises which, in Caruana's own words, remain nothing but a 'dream' Malta cannot afford. It is certainly no coincidence that Abela exhumed this old promise immediately after Alex Borg declared that Malta urgently needs an efficient and realistic mass transport system, and announced that in the coming weeks the PN will be launching its proposals on the matter."

"Abela is promising a metro which Caruana himself has dismissed as nothing more than a silly season pledge," the PN said.

The PN statement was signed by Mark Anthony Sammut, Shadow Minister for Transport and Mobility