PN renews calls for action as Malta's electricity crisis persists

The Nationalist Party (PN) on Thursday, 27 August 2026, renewed its call for government action on Malta's ongoing electricity crisis and demanded that Energy Minister Miriam Dalli assume political responsibility for the continuing disruption to supply. The statement, signed by Shadow Minister for Energy and the Environment Mark Anthony Sammut, said that residents, businesses and families in Mosta, Tarxien, Żejtun, Fgura, Paola, Santa Luċija and St Julian's – among other localities – had suffered prolonged power outages in recent days, with some left without electricity for more than 24 hours.

A care home for older persons in Gżira lost power for approximately half a day, preventing residents from having meals prepared. Some residents were subsequently collected by relatives. Multiple businesses and commercial establishments across affected areas were forced to suspend operations and close.

"We have reached the end of August and, contrary to everything the government tried to promise and portray, the crisis in Malta's electricity distribution system is still with us and the problems remain unresolved," the PN statement read. Minister Dalli has cited €140 million in spending on the electricity distribution system over the past three years as evidence of government action.

The PN argues this expenditure has plainly failed. "All this is happening after a series of empty promises that the problems would be resolved, and after Minister Miriam Dalli boasted of €140 million in expenditure over the past three years – spending which has clearly failed to give people the reassurance they were promised," the statement said.

The PN parliamentary group filed a motion the previous month calling for Minister Dalli to resign or be removed, for Parliament to declare its distrust in her and to strongly censure her following earlier summer outages. Prime Minister Robert Abela and the Labour government have refused to debate or bring that motion to a vote, the PN stated.

Government MPs on the Public Accounts Committee also refused to discuss a National Audit Office report published approximately two years earlier, which the PN says highlighted inadequate planning and investment in the electricity grid over the preceding decade. The PN described the blocking of the report from committee discussion as "unprecedented". The party set out four specific demands: automatic compensation for consumers and businesses deprived of service, enshrined in law and paid directly by the electricity operator; a dedicated helpline for vulnerable people whose health is put at risk by outages; a full public account of how the €140 million was spent; and publication of Enemalta's accounts from 2022 onwards.

The PN stated that no concrete action has been taken on compensation for families, older persons and businesses who suffered hardship, financial losses and inconvenience from the outages. "The Maltese and Gozitan people have had enough of excuses, empty words and the waste of public funds without results," the statement concluded. No response from Minister Dalli or the government to the PN's demands was included in the party's statement.