PN outlines tax, health and infrastructure pledges

Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg addressed thousands of supporters at a mass meeting in Sliema on Saturday, outlining a sweeping package of economic, health and infrastructure pledges under the theme 'New Breath' – hashtag #nifsgdid. Borg, who noted he had been PN leader for nine months, opened by saluting Robert Arrigo, Francis Zammit Dimech and Karl Gouder as figures important to the district and referenced Ġorġ Borg Olivier as the father of Maltese independence.

He said Labour leader Robert Abela had called the election a year ahead of schedule without giving a clear reason and had expected to catch the PN off guard. Instead, Borg said, Abela found a prepared and energised party. Borg repeated an apology for shortcomings during the PN's 25 years in government.

"We did a lot of good, but we were not perfect. We hurt people too, and I apologise on behalf of my colleagues," he said. On the economy, Borg pledged a minimum saving of €1,200 per year for families through personal income tax reductions and said the cost-of-living adjustment would no longer be taxed under a PN government.

He also promised the complete abolition of inheritance tax, framing it as a matter of social justice. "When you buy a property, you pay tax; when you sell, you pay tax. This is justice for the Maltese and Gozitan people," he said, adding that the same relief would extend to property donations from parents and grandparents to children.

Electricity bills, he pledged, would fall by an average of 30% from January, covering families, single-person households and farmers. On health, Borg announced a four-hospital network across Malta and Gozo: a new hospital in northern Malta, a new hospital in Gozo, further investment in Mater Dei and investment to replace St Luke's Hospital. He pledged that within the first 100 days of a PN government he would open negotiations with the healthcare workers' union MUMN on a new financial package covering doctors, nurses, midwives and all hospital staff.

Cancer medication, he said, would be fully free. Borg alleged that when the PN first announced that pledge, Labour attacked it as impossible before endorsing it days later. Pensions would increase by at least €650 per year and a free GP home-visit service would be introduced for elderly patients.

On student support, Borg pledged a 25% increase in stipends to take effect from the coming scholastic year, starting in October – without waiting for a budget cycle. Borg said traffic is costing Malta approximately €170 million per year and that Malta has one of the highest rates of respiratory-related deaths in Europe. The PN's mass transport project, he said, has full technical detail, clear timelines and confirmed financing, with shadow finance minister Adrian Delia having signed off on the budget.

He pledged the first major mass transport line would be completed within the first five years of a PN government, contrasting that with what he characterised as Labour's pledge of five more years of studies. Borg also announced a pledge to create a dedicated authority tasked with managing population sustainably and protecting what he described as the national identity of Malta and Gozo and promised more open green spaces, planted with grass and trees rather than gravel, in towns and villages.

Closing his address, Borg told the crowd: "I alone will not make it. We alone will not make it. But with you, we will certainly get there."

He called on supporters to post the hashtag #nifsgdid on social media and urged them: "The hour of the Maltese has arrived. Malta and Gozo are calling you. This is the moment to give Malta and Gozo a new breath."