There was no shame in being pro-business because business brought with it work, taxes and prosperity, PL leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday in Qala.

They’re trying to frighten you, or paint all entrepreneurs as thieves

Dr Muscat described his party as “a movement of workers, but also a movement of those who create work,” in an oblique reference to accusations that Labour was “too close” to big business.

The claim, first made by former PL deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia in an interview with The Sunday Times, has dogged Dr Muscat for the past few days.

And having previously avoided commenting on the claims, the PL leader yesterday went on the counterattack, saying the difference between the two main parties was that “the people we speak to are honest, and want a Malta that isn’t of the few, for the few”.

“They’re trying to frighten you, or paint all entrepreneurs as thieves. Perhaps they just want to curry favour with the select few who have a hold over them,” he told the excitable crowd.

Dr Muscat drew parallels between the PN pledge to publish its electoral campaign accounts and the PL policy of publishing its audited accounts every year.

“This Prime Minister even had an MP – Dr Debono – who drew up a party financing law for him, but he did nothing with it,” the PL leader said.

Dr Muscat used his late afternoon political meeting in Qala to explain some of the party’s proposals for Gozo directly to Gozitans. And the raucous crowd lapped it up, bursting into bouts of applause on several occasions.

A PL proposal to create a cruise liner passenger terminal would bring “hundreds of new tourists and jobs”, he said.

He warned the crowd not to pay attention to the polls, which indicate a hefty advantage for the PL, just over a month before the polling booths open on March 9.

“We are still the underdogs facing an uphill path,” he said as his speech drew to a close.

“We must continue speaking and listening to everyone.”

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