The PN is once again showing that it is Gozo’s natural party, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told hundreds of Gozitan women yesterday during the first PN coffee morning in this electoral campaign.

Banking on the fact that Gozo has always been considered a Nationalist electoral stronghold, Dr Gonzi gave details of what the party is proposing for the island in the coming years.

Dr Gonzi emphasised that Nationalist governments have always considered Gozo to be a special case for attention due to its double insularity and underscored that his party planned to continue to treat Gozo in a privileged manner.

He said the PN was committed to slashing by 90 per cent all business-related licences for new businesses set up on the island. Moreover, the PN is also pledging a two-year tax holiday for new Gozitan businesses employing at least two people.

Dr Gonzi said that, under a new PN government, Gozitans can also continue to benefit from a raft of proposals under the party’s social programme, including a new €1,000-pension account to be opened for every newborn, an increase in children’s allowance and more incentives for the elderly to keep living in the community.

Dr Gonzi said that, while the PN was tested and trusted, Labour was an unknown quantity.

“Apart from the lack of experience, Labour is still without an electoral programme half-way through the electoral campaign. We have been waiting for five years and we are still in the dark,” Dr Gonzi said.

Back to basic campaigning?

The PN’s coffee morning at Crystal Palace hall in Marsalforn yesterday was the first such activity during this campaign and a long shot from the almost totally stage-managed televised activities which the two main political parties have been organising lately.

Coffee mornings featured prominently, at least in every week, in past electoral campaigns, with staunch party supporters, mainly women, giving an enthusiastic and colourful welcome to their leader.

Hugs, kisses and flowers were the order of the day for any leader having to walk a few metres across a fully-packed hall of women waving flags to the sounds of the party’s anthem until reaching the small stage for his address to the already converted.

It was a similar scene yesterday, although it remains to be seen if the coffee morning will see a revival in electoral campaigns.

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