Joseph Muscat ditched talk of economic success and focused on his government’s achievements on civil rights when he addressed supporters this morning.

Speaking in Luqa, the prime minister spoke on the social changes that have changed Malta’s image abroad from the penultimate country to introduce divorce  to one at the forefront of change in the promotion of gay rights.

Dr Muscat said that his government had “a million defects,” without touching on any of the scandals that have hit the government.

He, however, referred to the referendum result in Italy last week that saw Italians rejecting constitutional reforms proposed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

He said the result was an eye-opener and made him appreciate more the fact that the Maltese had embraced change wholeheartedly thanks to the Labour Party and the movement it created.

He mentioned the civil unions law that allows gay couples to enjoy the rights as any married couple. The Prime Minister took some time to dwell on an encounter he had with a gay couple who recently adopted a disabled child.

“There had been 50 ‘normal’ couples who refused to adopt this Maltese child and without judging them for the decision they took, it was only this gay couple that adopted this child to give him a caring family and life… this alone convinces me that the law we introduced was good,” Dr Muscat said, reiterating that he was one of those who had initially been against child adoptions by gay couples.

Dr Muscat added that change had been normalised to the extent that an important law criminalising gay conversion therapy approved by Parliament last week passed without controversy. At one point in parliament it was only Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli and himself who were present.
 
He warned the political class that after the pressure valve was removed, people today no longer needed politicians to enact change. “People can force change and as politicians we have to understand this phenomenon and react to it by being the conduits of change," he said.