Coleiro Preca stresses need to listen

A Labour Party led by Marie Louise Coleiro Preca would continue talking and listening to the people so that its decisions would reflect their aspirations, she said yesterday.

"I am a politician and not a manager and, as party leader, I will continue living with the people and listening to them," the leadership contender said after touring the market at Vittoriosa.

Mrs Coleiro Preca said that her visits were showing that the people had a lot to say. Many were stressing the need of a united Labour Party. This, she said, was fundamental to her. "We have to understand who we are and why we are together. Progress is impossible without unity." She said that another concern the people were facing was the increase in fuel and food costs. She appealed to the government to set up a task force to immediately address these difficulties. It was true these were the result of international circumstances but other countries were doing their utmost to mitigate the negative impact on the purchasing power of their people.

Eurozone statistics for March showed that the cost of food had increased by 6.1 per cent and inflation was up by 3.5 per cent. Inflation in Malta was up by more than three per cent.