
Sunday, 18th May 2008 - 11:38CET
Muscat tells delegates he does not represent anybody else
Joseph Muscat last night appeared to be distancing himself from claims that he is the preferred leadership candidate of the current Sant team, telling party delegates: “A vote for Joseph is a vote for Joseph, no one else”.
He also stressed that should he take over the helm at the MLP, he would lead with his own style.
Dr Muscat said he considered all the leadership contenders as his colleagues, and the only political adversary was Lawrence Gonzi.
He insisted that the Prime Minister could not use the current global economic problems as an excuse not to keep his electoral promises. The PN had known before the election what was on the horizon, yet had still made its promises.
Dr Muscat said the MLP should expose all attempts at deception by the government, while also preparing its own proposals for the future.
Dr Muscat spoke at the MFCC at Ta’Qali before a large crowd of delegates and supporters from the 10th, 11th and 12 districts.
Paediatric surgeon Chris Fearne also spoke at the activity.




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Comments
My dear friend and ex-classmate,
No other prospective candidate for the MLP leadership except Joseph Muscat has been reported or felt it necessary to make such a blatant statement. Have you wondered why this is so? I would say that it is because each one of them, once elected, would be his own man ( or woman in the case of M.L Coleiro Preca ) and be able to stand on one's own feet. Muscat felt it necessary to make this declaration to put his supporters' minds at rest that despite the well known fact that the MLP inner circle including Dr Sant and Dr George Vella are actively pushing forward his candidature, he is claiming that he wants to be his own man and no one else's. Only time and circumstances can vouch for this claim, but judging from past experience.........................
Surely you can read between the lines whenever such declarations are made publicly.
@ Maria Pace
You have stated that Joseph Muscat was elected MEP with his own style. If by that you mean that he took unfair advantage of the exposure and popularity gained from conducting a vitriolically anti-EU membership TV programme called "Made in Brussels" that continously poked fun and belittled EU institutions in order to receive the highest number of votes from MLP supporters, I will agree with you 100%. When you mentioned that this worked brilliantly, I suppose you were referring to the opportunistic methods he employed to get elected.
No one can forget that following the MLP defeat at the 2003 Referendum and General Elections, Muscat was accredited at having performed a sensational 360 degree U-turn to transform himself from a convinced and declared Eurosceptic to materialize into a budding, enterprising young Europhile. St Paul's miraculous conversion to Christianity on his way to Damascus pales into insignificance when compared to Muscat's abrupt, complete and diametrically opposed change of tune.
you state "PN have already gone into a frenzy with the prospects of Dr. Muscat becoming Leader. The other issue is that with this MLP Leader, this Govt. will be very short lived!"
Stop dreaming! The PN would love nothing better than JM being elected leader. Just look at surveys of where the floating voter preferences lie and you would know that JM scores very low where it matters.
Imagine five years down the road. If Gonzi performs well in this leglislature, and Labour have to assume that, the floating voter will have to choose between a strong pair of proven hands and an inexperienced man with no executive experience. The choice would be clear and Labour will stay as a permanent fixture in opposition.
JM is the favourite candidate of the outgoing leadership and he does not have what it takes to shake off their patronage. If he did he would now that the interest of the party are not congruent with his becoming Leader.
I have never emailed a politician before but felt compelled to send one to Mr. Muscat and bid him good luck in the leadership race that I consider he deserves to win having found the star quality within him to communicate his sentiment in a highly engaging way, he has touched me and will surely touch others. I look forward to politics becoming more meaningful for me with him around.
@A. Dalli: Read the interview J. Muscat had on the Sunday paper ILLUM. That will satisfy your concern.
@Liam: Well said!!
I think the GonziPN government should focus on hoe to tackle the current serious problems this country is facing. Also, the GonziPN should see through the number of pre-electoral promises it made which after 3 months have already been broken. The PN media is focussing on the Labour leadership contest so as to distract attention from the current deteriortin situation in this lost-hope country.
also to oppose the Government. I fair that with all this fuss and shows and media hunger for something new happening around it's making us losing focus on what is really important for the country. The fact that party A has a greater leader then party B or that we have to move forward by facing what is really the problem of now a days.
There is the need for the parliament to work in synchronization not creating dilemmas just for the sack of it. energy is the biggest problem right now. not only for us but for the whole world we have politions that are not looking towards solutions but towards short terms mind gimmicks and i am afraid that the new MLP will consolidate this problem by opposing everything instead of making somethings good in the time passed and paid by the government to be in the opposition. I hope that Both the Government and the Opposition stop discriding each others as enemies . that is childish and ignorant. not mature at all.
This is the man we desperately need in Malta. A man that holds the Govt. to account in all that it does. A man afraid of the Govt. when one tries to protect the vulnerable and being accused of damaging the country.
PN have already gone into a frenzy with the prospects of Dr. Muscat becoming Leader. The other issue is that with this MLP Leader, this Govt. will be very short lived!
What a childish cheap shot.
But Dr. Muscat must admit that the present defeated administration, including Dr. Sant, Dr. George Vella and few others, prefer Dr. Muscat to be the next MLP leader, because among them there are few of them that they are very comfortable in opposition.
All surveys carried out by all the independent newspapers and the independent media shows clearly that Dr. Muscat has a very low preference among the floating voters.
So that's why Dr. Sant & Co are pushing Dr. Muscat to be the next leader ??????????