The Nationalist Party has pledged to review Malta’s local plans, saying that development will be tied to the “real capacity of localities”

PN launched its manifesto – more than 1,000 proposals across 16 so-called pillars, at a meeting of the general council at its headquarters in Pietà on Monday evening.

The party is promising to ensure that each local plan is sensitive to demography, traffic, parking, infrastructure, the character of the locality and the quality of life.

“We will introduce an Urban Carrying Capacity Map and a Traffic Intensity Index for each locality, strengthen the protection of the historical centres and of Gozo, and give an effective voice to Local Councils and residents. This will breathe new life into planning: orderly, respectful and peace of mind development,” the manifesto states.

Another PN pledge states that, if elected, it would ensure that no government can remove the protection of ODZ land by a simple majority.

“Any different classification of land outside the development zone would require a two-thirds majority in Parliament.”

Speaking at the launch, PN leader Alex Borg placed time at the heart of the manifesto, promising a PN government would give people back hours lost to traffic, healthcare delays, financial pressure and an economy he said had stopped working for families.

The 16 pillars include the economy, the private sector, tax cuts, health and sport, education, social policy, youths, mobility, energy and water, Gozo, tourism, culture, the environment, agriculture and fisheries, governance and foreign policy.

Beyond money, Borg argued, the country had also robbed people of time: time away from their families, their children and their lives.

“Every day, thousands of people spend hours in traffic,” Borg said. “Hours they will never get back. Time away from their family. Time away from their children. Time away from life.”

That, he said, was why the PN was proposing a modern mass transport system, not as a headline-grabbing project but as a way of “giving people their time back”. However, he did not provide more details about the plan.

The theme ran through several of Borg’s pledges, with the PN leader presenting the manifesto as a plan to ease daily pressures and restore what he repeatedly described as “peace of mind”.

Health “an absolute priority”

On health, Borg said time mattered most when people fell ill. In those moments, he said, patients were not interested in political arguments but in whether the system would work for them, whether treatment would be delivered on time and whether their children would have a better future.

He said health would be an “absolute priority” for a PN government, promising investment in “four hospitals”: converting the Paola health hub into a 250-bed hospital, building a new hospital in the north, building a new hospital in Gozo and investing further in Mater Dei.

The PN had already announced plans for new hospitals in the north and Gozo, an expanded Mater Dei and the conversion of the Paola hub into a hospital during the first days of the campaign, but Monday’s speech added the 250-bed figure for Paola.

Borg also repeated the PN’s plan for a national health park in Selmun, saying people deserved a healthcare system that offered hope rather than anxiety.

Borg said the PN wanted a country where people who work live better, rather than one where they work more and have less left over.

He pledged to cut taxes for all workers and self-employed people and remove tax on the cost-of-living adjustment, arguing that COLA should help people deal with rising prices, not become another opportunity for the government to take more money from them.

He also promised to abolish the succession tax and tax on donations, saying it was unfair for children to be “punished” when they inherited a home or business built by their parents.

On energy, Borg said bills were among the burdens “suffocating” people. He repeated the PN pledge to reduce electricity bills by an average of 30%, remove the electricity meter rental charge and extend assistance to farmers, fishermen, livestock breeders and voluntary organisations.

On housing, Borg said young people needed “a future, not slogans”, noting that many couples were taking years to buy their first home while others were giving up altogether.

He said a PN government would refund 50% of the interest paid by first-time buyers on their home loan for 10 years, up to a maximum of €390 a month, with the money paid directly into their bank accounts.

The proposal was announced last week, with the party later clarifying that the scheme would cost an average of €37 million a year, rather than the €2.8 million figure Borg had initially given.

Borg also pledged to raise pensions by at least €650 a year, describing it as a guaranteed permanent annual increase rather than a one-off measure. He said a PN government would also provide free family doctor visits at home for elderly people.

In education, he said the PN would build a new school every year and increase stipends by 25%, saying the party wanted young people to feel the country believed in them, rather than feel they had to leave Malta to build a future.

Gozitans ‘won’t be second-class citizens’

For Gozo, Borg said Gozitans would not be “second-class citizens” under his leadership. He promised stronger connectivity between Malta and Gozo through new ferries, a more frequent fast ferry service and more efficient transport.

He also linked the issue of time and quality of life to population growth, saying Malta needed an organised country where infrastructure keeps up, public services function and quality of life comes before numbers.

The PN, he said, wanted an economy that grows “by value, not by volume”.

On the environment, Borg said people were tired of concrete, noise and watching every corner of the country disappear. He pledged open spaces, gardens and parks in every town and village.

“Malta can breathe again, and with us it will be able to do so,” he said.

Borg closed by casting the PN as an underdog but said voters knew what people were feeling beyond surveys, billboards and political noise.

“The people want to be heard,” he said. “The people are waiting for new leadership. The people are waiting for new hope. The people are waiting for a new breath.”

The general council approved the manifesto, which party officials said could become a programme for government if the PN wins the May 30 election.

The council was also addressed by George Vital Zammit, the main architect of the manifesto, as well as PN’s deputy leader Alex Perici Calascione, Secretary General Charles Bonello, and candidate and outgoing energy shadow minister Mark Anthony Sammut.