Gonzi, Muscat agree to work together for common good

Sharing the occasional joke and looking relaxed in each other's company, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday toured the Nationalist Party's spanking new headquarters in Pietà.

"I believe this is the way of doing politics, confronting ideas without antagonism and agreeing on issues we believe in. This is the spirit of serenity our country needs," Dr Muscat said.

Dr Gonzi, PN leader, concurred, expressing his wish of working together with the Labour Party.

"We may not see eye to eye on everything but we agree on one thing: To work together for the common good of our country," he said.

Accompanying the party leaders and their wives were outgoing PN general secretary Joe Saliba, deputy Labour leader for party affairs Toni Abela and the MLP general secretary Jason Micallef.

This is Dr Muscat's second visit to the PN headquarters since his appointment, the first being a courtesy meeting with Dr Gonzi.

The mood was jovial overall and when the group visited the newsroom Dr Muscat joked that he had a feeling "no one will ever mention me here".

The visit included a tour of Informa Library, run by Tessa Baluci, which has parliamentary debates dating back to 1885 and a database of 630,000 entries going back to 1989.

The tour ended in Dr Gonzi's office, which has a full view of the MLP headquarters, a point they joked about.

Dr Gonzi presented the group with books on the party's history and thanked them for visiting.