Muscat revives 'web of espionage' charge

The Nationalist Party was still brazenly using its web of espionage, with people who approached ministries receiving phone calls from the party on the eve of the MEP elections, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

"The web of espionage that was uncovered after someone made a mistake is still being used without shame," he said.

Dr Muscat made a fleeting reference to the infamous e-mail sent by Nationalist general secretary Paul Borg Olivier regarding a data sharing strategy last year, which had been dubbed by the Labour Party as a "web of espionage". The e-mail was uncovered after Dr Borg Olivier mistakenly sent it to Labour general secretary Jason Micallef.

In a similar blunder, Nationalist MEP candidate Vince Farrugia last week forwarded an e-mail sent by Nationalist Party EP campaign chief Stefano Mallia instructing candidates not to disclose how much they spent on their election campaign to The Sunday Times.

"It seems e-mail is an endemic problem for the PN," Dr Muscat said.

Speaking to some 3,000 Labour supporters who packed Ta' Qali's Greek Theatre, some waving EU flags, Dr Muscat said people who received hefty electricity bills had the "golden opportunity" to vote for PL candidates who believed in a better tomorrow for Malta.

Referring to the recent controversy surrounding a government report which suggested stopping the free health centre doctor service, Dr Muscat said Dr Gonzi should not have commissioned the report or else should have made it clear in the terms of reference that health care was to remain free. The government has since denied any intention to stop the free service and the report has not received the backing of Cabinet.

Moreover, the government, Dr Muscat charged, wanted to charge VAT on children's vaccines, something that countries which joined the EU with Malta had resisted. He said it remained to be seen whether this had really been imposed by the EU.

"The Nationalist Party was elected due to a lot of promises which are now being broken. (Dr) Gonzi deceived you and your family," Dr Muscat said.

He urged people to go out and vote on Saturday, even if they had lost hope, to elect deserving representatives who would defend Maltese people's interests and not cover up for Dr Gonzi. He said voters should give the government a clear sign that the spiralling cost of living was unacceptable, adding that his party would be working both in Malta and at EU level to set up a price-monitoring agency. He said it was also unacceptable that medicines in Malta were more expensive than in the EU.

He urged workers to use their vote to protest against competition from illegal immigrants who were abused and forced to register as self-employed to find a job.

Dr Muscat warned those who were not going to vote because they believed the PL would certainly win, to remember the last election when the Nationalist Party clinched victory with just 1,500 votes.

"Do not give up, irrespective of how big the problems are. Let us work together and form a coalition for a better tomorrow for Malta in Europe," he said, as a handful of EU flags dotted the theatre.

Deputy leader Toni Abela, who was the first to address the crowd, said Dr Gonzi was the face of Malta's problems while Dr Muscat was the solution.

Taking a page from last year's US presidential election campaign, which saw Ohioan Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, take centre stage during the presidential debate, Dr Abela mentioned people who were suffering under a Nationalist government.

One of them, Joseph Ellul, had an ear operation halted midway through because a laser used during the operation stopped working. He was still waiting two years on. Senglean Mary Gatt had to buy pills which she was supposed to get for free after the government pharmacy ran out of them, while Josie Farrugia, from Żebbuġ, had been waiting for five years for a hip replacement.

Dr Abela said his party pledged to pay for private health care for people who had been waiting for a long time for surgery and to refund money that people paid to buy medicines which were out of stock from the government pharmacy.