Labour leader Joseph Muscat believes that the fight in the next election will be one of hope over fear.

Replying to questions by the managing editor of The Independent on Sunday Noel Grima, Dr Muscat said that he had inherited a demoralised party that was made up of enthusiastic people who were losing hope of their party ever being in government.

“Our first challenge is to believe in ourselves and I think we are winning this challenge.

“Our past has it glorious moments and there were also times when we made mistakes.

“We are currently going through a process of change, the most major one being psychological.

“The party is also opening up to people who share our principles but never realised they did so.”

Dr Muscat said that he knew he was untested and would be demonised before the election so that people would be afraid to vote for him.

However, although he was untested, he had always obtained results wherever he worked.

He said he was ready to go in for the major responsibility of government with all his energy and ability.

“I will not be perfect but I will work for a better day,” he said, adding he believed hope would win over fear.

Dr Muscat was asked about the divorce issue and said he believed this was a matter which had to come up.

He said that the Labour Party had lost a whole generation of people in the politico-religious fight in the sixties, when people were threatened with sin. Repercussions were still being felt especially within families who felt they were socialists but also Christians.

Dr Muscat said it was not his wish or aspiration to reopen a politico-religious conflict in Malta.

This did not mean that the PL did not want the Church to speak out on its beliefs but reciprocal respect had to be shown.

He hoped that what Mgr Anton Gouder said recently when he said that voting in favour of divorce was equal to sinning had been blown out of proportion.

Other theologians, including Fr Claude Camilleri in The Times, Dr Muscat said, had spoken against such argumentation and presented logical arguments.

The divorce debate, Dr Muscat said, should also concentrate on the how. Divorce had to be there for marriages that could not be saved and to safeguard the best interests of the couple and the children.

The PL, the Labour leader said, was not seeking confrontation. It wanted to say what it through but at the same time it also wanted the Church to be free to express itself before a mature decision, which the people deserved, was taken.

On the power station extension contract, Dr Muscat said that the fact that the European Commission had already sent the government a letter about this case was very serious, irrespective of what could take place in the coming months.

The people were now realising they were paying for corruption through taxes and austerity measures and they did not want to continue doing so.

His commitment to the people, he said, was that these things would not repeat themselves once Labour was in government.

“God forbid the day comes when I am Prime MInister and I allow such things to take place.

“I owe it to all tax paying Maltese and Gozitans not to allow this,” he said.

Labour, he said, was willing to reopen the case once in government and give new powers that would protect the whistle blowers who willing to speak on politicians who were bribed.

The country, he said, was already paying for the mistakes of the future.

Dr Muscat criticised the regulator of the Malta Resources Authority who, he said, was not really working independently from the government.

Turning to the new oncology hospital, he said that this hospital, together with a rehabilitation one, had to be built by Skanska according to the agreement the Prime Minister had reached with them.

But although the company was paid more than the maximum promised, these hospitals had not materialised.