MLP spokesman for foreign affairs George Vella yesterday insisted the government was "inventing" that the yes camp had won the referendum.

Despite the 53.6 per cent majority of yes votes, Dr Vella told a crowd during a Labour Party activity in Zejtun that "as we won the first campaign, we will win the second because the people are not idiots".

He said the government could remove and reduce as many numbers as it wanted, including the dead, "but it still would not get a majority".

Dr Vella even went on to accuse the PN of allowing its supporters to take to the roads in celebration, which could have resulted in chaos had the Labour Party not intervened.

He said he wished he was a fly on the wall when Brussels must have told Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami that he was taking the EU for a ride. He said Brussels must have told Dr Fenech Adami to hold an election fast because the situation in Malta was endangering the referenda in other candidate countries.

During the activity, Opposition leader Alfred Sant said that taxes had increased, job opportunities decreased and roads deteriorated, but mentioned "partnership" only in the context of Malta and Gozo and with "creative forces".

He skimmed through the concept of "partnership" on a national basis when a person in the crowd asked whether it existed.

Dr Sant answered that the question was whether EU membership existed since "the absolute minority voted for it in the referendum".