The Nationalist Party’s launch of a new billboard yesterday claiming Joseph Muscat would freeze the minimum wage was met with an angry response from the Labour leader who said he would be suing for libel.

I did not say I would freeze the minimum wage but that it would not increase

During a press conference to launch the billboard, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said Dr Muscat had stated last week that Labour would not increase the minimum wage.

This, he added, showed that Labour’s policy had not changed from the 1980s when it had introduced a wage freeze that had turned the economy of Malta similar to that of a Third World country.

Mr Fenech said that after preaching for years about the need for an increase in the minimum wage and the introduction of the concept of a living wage, Dr Muscat had now made a U-turn.

“In the last four years of a PN government, the minimum wage increased by €1,000,” he said. “Dr Muscat is now saying that under Labour wages will stand still.”

Labour’s reaction to the Nationalist’s second billboard campaign was immediate.

Visibly irritated, Dr Muscat denounced the PN’s political campaign. Calling the message on the PN’s billboard “a blatant lie,” he insisted he did not say he would freeze the minimum wage but that it would not be raised.

He said that, instead, Labour would reduce water and electricity tariffs.

“We need a new way of doing politics,” he said, while accusing the Prime Minister of playing dirty tricks.