Borg pledges that waste incinerator will not be built close to Naxxar
Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg on Wednesday pledged that the proposed waste incinerator will not be built close to Naxxar if his party is elected to government this weekend, as he used one of his final political activities of the campaign to run through the party’s environmental proposals.
Borg was speaking in Naxxar, which also featured short speeches by each candidate on the 10th electoral district, and promised that a proposed incinerator at Magħtab would not happen there, amidst continuous concerns from residents.
“We want to guarantee that your health is a priority, that we can safeguard your environment, and prove to you that we have listened to the residents,” he told supporters.
Borg attacked the PL’s environmental credibility, saying that despite a glitzy pledge to spend €700 million on environmental projects, the PL government’s Project Green spent €2 on marketing for every €1 spent on trees.
He said that the PN is promising a park in every locality, and said that this being in the party’s electoral programme is “serious leadership”, because people will be able to hold the party to account.
Borg continued by mentioning another planned initiative, titled ‘Aesthetic Malta’ which would aim to beautify Malta’s towns and villages. One of the first initiatives, he said, would be to run electricity wires underground rather than at street level.
“At the end of the day, aesthetic development is good: with serious planning we can see that we have development that is easy on the eye and that is for the good of Malta and Gozo’s identity,” he said.
On planning, Borg said that it is clear that the government has had no plan for years. “In recent days we say a big risk of a tragedy in this locality,” Borg said, referring to how residents had to be evacuated from their homes as the foundations of a new development failed.
“For this government, we need to lose a life for them to take action. They do not work to prevent bad things that might happen; that’s why when we speak about planning, we are promising a wide and holistic reform,” he said.
Borg ran through other promises. He said that the party would ensure that decisions for the reclassification for Outside Development Zones could only be taken via a two-thirds majority vote in Parliament.
He also said that a PN government would reform the law for planning appeals to ensure that construction cannot happen while a project is under appeal – but to also ensure that appeals can only take a maximum of six months.
But the party’s “biggest and most holistic reform”, Borg said, will be to the country’s Local Plans, which have not been changed since 2006.
“We will address this in the first legislature. We will reform them to address the needs of our country; to guarantee that open spaces are safeguarded, that UCAs are safeguarded, and to create synergy with other policies,” he said.
He said that this can guarantee a better quality of life to Maltese people. He said that the Labour Party knows that it has failed in this area because it was implemented a wellbeing index in its own manifesto.
Borg also promised that a PN government would complete a race track for motorsport enthusiasts.
The PN leader also referred to news that the National Statistics Office had opted to delay the publication of government finance and unemployment data until after the election to observe laws prohibiting material that could influence voters during the silent day period.
The Malta Independent earlier in the day reported how the NSO had published government finance statistics on 25 March 2022, the day before the election, which was also silent day.
Borg said that the NSO was hiding statistics because it did not want people to realise the government’s obscene spending. However, he said, the European Central Bank had published the government finance data.
He said that this data showed that the government has a debt of almost €12 billion, and that between March 2026 and April 2026 – just before calling the election – the government borrowed another €1 billion.
“The government had another Budget before it if it wanted to, but opted for an election where it is now promising everything under the sun,” Borg said.
“We need a fresh breath, and a government that fulfils what it promises,” he concluded.
RSS Feed Source: Independent Malta Borg pledges that waste incinerator will not be built close to Naxxar