Joseph Muscat announced today that he will be a candidate on the second district when a general election is called.
The second district was traditionally Dom Mintoff's district and Dr Muscat appeared to acknowledge that, saying that the fact that the leader would be a candidate on that district would ensure historical justice as this was the place where the party was born. He said he still has to decide what other district he will contest.
The PL's list on the second district - Cottonera - is expected to be one of the longest, with some 20 candidates including prominent doctors and lawyers, informed sources said.
This will be the first time that Joseph Muscat will be a candidate in the general election, although he successfully contested the election for MEPs. PN leader Lawrence Gonzi was a candidate on the second district in 2008.
Earlier, Dr Muscat said to applause that during the current political crisis, he was acting as Leader of the Opposition, not leader of the Labour Party.
He told Labour Party delegates that when his political adversary was on his knees, many had expected him to deal the fatal blow.
But, Dr Muscat said, he was acting first and foremost in the interests of stability and the national interest.
He did not believe, that this government could guarantee stability - independently of what happened in Parliament this week.
He was therefore urging the prime minister to put the interests of the country first, as he had done during the Libyan crisis.
In the current crisis, Dr Gonzi was putting the Nationalist Party first. But he should put the country first, and the country needed stability.
Dr Muscat was speaking at a question and answer with the delegates as part of the PL annual general conference.
Replying to other questions, he said the PL was no longer closed within itself but had opened its doors to all those who were interested in participating within it.
Dr Muscat promised that a new Labour government would be 'safe' for business, 'safe' for workers and 'safe' for Nationalists. It would not be vindictive, although it would seek justice.
Labour, he said, would build a new middle class as Dom Mintoff had done and which the Fenech Adami had strengthened before the GonziPN government demolished it.
But Labour would also be 'safe' for the well off because that would be good also for the other sections of society.
Asked how Labour would tackle the country's financial problems, he said the key was to boost the economy, rather than to reduce spending, although that could contribute too. A Labour government's priority would be to ensure that the national debt was sustainable, and that would only happen with a growing economy based on fiscal stability. He could not promise that Labour would remove the country's debt, but debt growth would be better controlled and financial targets would be kept.
Dr Muscat repeatedly urged supporters not to be carried away because there was a lot of hard work to be done for the PL to win an election. The PL, he said, had not won a popular majority since 1976 (with the exception of 1996).
He said the PL electoral programme would not promise everything to everyone and people would not be taken for a ride. The focus, he said, would be priorities, of which one would be the energy sector and a reduction of the water and electricity bill. He said Labour would not reduce pensions but would seek to strengthen them. Labour would also not touch stipends. He said Labour would also review the wardens system, where the vast amount of funds from fines went to two companies and not the councils.