Muscat's 'surplus' another populist gimmick - PN

Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil today criticised the Prime Minister for his “populist gimmicks” following his latest “pompous” announcement of a budget surplus.

While Joseph Muscat bragged about a budget surplus for the first time in many years, he did not tell people that this was just a result of slashing capital investment by 47 per cent, Dr Busuttil said. 

"This is just another example of populist politicians who do not tell the truth to their people but are only interested in headlines," Dr Busuttil told EU youth leaders gathered in Malta.

The PN leader said it would have been better if the prime minister also informed the public that he had slashed tens of millions of euros in government investment during the same year to be able to brag about an €8 million surplus.

This was when the same figures showed continuing recurrent expenditure growth so that the government could 'waste' taxpayers money on vote-buying expeditions.

Dr Busuttil said that the Maltese electorate had become accustomed to take what its prime minister said with a pinch of salt and always discovered something different after his “bombastic” announcements.