Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered in Vittoriosa yesterday for the Labour Party’s campaign leading up to the local council elections, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat focused on the closure of the Marsa power station, saying it showed the government had worked to better the south.

Dr Muscat avoided any reference to the fact that the Marsa power station was closed a day before the Labour Party had committed to having a new plant operational. The Marsa power station was not decommissioned but left intact as back-up for any malfunctions.

The country’s energy needs are now being served by the BWSC plant in Delimara, which had been branded as a cancer factory by the PL before the elections. The new deadline for the plant is now set for June next year.

“We have proven nobody can say we have forgotten the south,” Dr Muscat said yesterday.

Riding on the slogan of “Malta ottimista” (an optimistic Malta) the Prime Minister said the south had been put at the forefront as the location to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting scheduled for November.

It was “a privilege” granted to the people of the south that 53 heads of government would spend a day in the area, he said, referring to a day’s informal meeting scheduled to be held at Fort St Angelo.

Dr Muscat, as well as Family and Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia and MP Luciano Busuttil, who spoke before him, all said “the best is yet to come for the south”, although they did not give further details. That brought cheers from the crowd.

Dr Muscat also steered clear of two damning reports by the National Audit Office that criticised the lack of good governance and transparency in the handling of the €4.2 million Café Premier deal and the Socar hedging agreement resulting from ministerial direction that the NAO found was not backed up by sufficient documentation.

“We are being criticised for our eagerness to get things done,” said Dr Muscat, in reference to the Opposition’s attacks over the two issues.