Labour leader Joseph Muscat today appealed to the transport federation to call off the public transport strike planned for tomorrow.

It would be the people, not the government, who suffered from such industrial action, Dr Muscat told an MLP activity in Naxxar.

He said he was also appealing to the government to meet the federation for talks.

Dr Muscat said Transport Minister Austin Gatt was inventing when, in a statement, he claimed he was defending monopolies. His record in the European Parliament showed otherwise, Dr Muscat said, and the MLP policy was in favour of liberalisation where the people were not being well served.

It was wrong, however, for the government to be doing things it did not promise in the run-up to the election.

Dr Muscat reiterated that the MLP would be positive whenever it viewed political developments as benefiting Malta.

Such positive developments over the past week including the Prime Minister’s announcement that talks would be held to strengthen democracy, something which the MLP had also called for. Such talks should be based on Parliament but also include other parties and the members of civil society, he said.

Also positive was Malta’s current participation in the EU Mediterranean initiative.

Dr Muscat said the MLP agreed with the call made by the Malta Employers’ Association for the shipyards privatisation process to be handled carefully so that Malta could get the best value for the enterprise. Indeed, the MLP wanted a good future for the dockyard in Malta, Dr Muscat said.

The Labour leader insisted that the government could still reduce excise duty on fuel, thus easing the financial burdens currently being suffered by the people. He said EU rules on this issue will not come into force before late next year, and Italy and France were already pressing for flexibility.

He also referred to a Finance Ministry statement a few days ago and said another EU report showed that the Maltese were no longer the least taxed people in the EU, as claimed.