Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this evening at a Freedom Day commemoration that he longed for the day when the Maltese people enjoyed the freedom of having demolished the barriers that divided them.

Speaking at the foot of the freedom monument in Vittoriosa, Dr Muscat said the commemoration of freedom day was still relevant, because it recalled an important day in Malta's history.

He insisted that the Maltese leaders who achieved independence, who made Malta a republic, and led it to freedom, did so for all the Maltese, and the national feasts which marked those events should be feasts which all the Maltese held dear.

Dr Muscat said that the country, as a whole, needed to work so that in seven years' time, when it assumed the presidency of the EU, it would be able to project leadership and vision for the whole EU.

This year's PL Freedom Day event was low key, in view of Holy Week. Instead of the usual mass meeting, those present enjoyed a musico-literary programme focused on Malta's road to freedom.

Dr Muscat then led the Labour leadership in laying flowers on the monument, which recalls the closure of the British military base on March 31, 1979.