Falzon says he wants to be 'leader, not head', of the MLP

Labour Party leadership contender Michael Falzon said this morning he personally had no opinion over whether the party should publish the report it had commissioned on the reasons for the defeat at the last general election.

Dr Falzon was replying to questions at a press conference during which he launched his programme for the party and the country. He had purposely held off publishing the programme earlier, saying the cornerstone of his leadership would be consultation and working as a team, and he had therefore first sought to speak to nearly all the 900 MLP delegates before announcing his plans.

Dr Falzon said he viewed the Labour Party of the future as being leftist, pro-Europe while promoting Malta, and pro-environment.

"We should be proud to be leftist and labourites" Dr Falzon said, adding that the EU was no longer an issue in domestic politics and there was no re-thinking about opening any "package" - a reference to the EU accession package. He said the MLP should do its best for Malta to get the best out of Malta's EU membership.

The Party should also be strongly pro-environment and sustainable development.

Dr Falzon said it was fundamental for the Labour Party to be inclusive and open to criticism, so that its support could grow beyond the current 48.8 percent of the population.

The party needed to revise and modernise its statute, which, he said, was akin to pizza dough, having been amended to fit particular circumstances. It was not even clear who could, or could not, stand for the leadership, he said.

The needed to promote a stronger team spirit, and it needed to have better relations with the non-party press. making use of all opportunities available to it. At the same time the party media needed to achieve a balance between commercial and political interests.

Party funding, including funding by the state, needed to be discussed.

Dr Falzon stressed that he wanted to be "the leader, not the head" of a Labour Party, where decisions were taken by consultation.

When he spoke about the country, Dr Falzon said Malta had to make the best of all opportunities available to it in the EU. It also needed to ensure that it enjoyed economic growth which was paralleled by social development, and there had to be stronger emphasis on education, the environment, science and technology.

Asked whether he would apologise to University students for what had happened before the general election, Dr Falzon said anything which was negative should be condemned.