They met for the first time in a head-to-head TV debate and although Joseph Muscat and Simon Busuttil had a lively exchange, the arguments they made were nothing new.
Between one dig and another, from the citizenship scheme to the gas storage in Marsaxlokk Bay, the two leaders sparred and parried on Xarabank.
The only new thing that emerged came at the very end, when Dr Muscat said the government was in the process of blacklisting two contractors who were convicted of employing people on precarious contracts.
Dr Muscat was forced to defend the Individual Investor Programme, the permanent mooring of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker in Marsaxlokk Bay and the poor state of the health sector.
On the other hand, Dr Busuttil had to defend his party’s stand against including child adoptions by gay couples with the Civil Unions Bill and failed to say whether he agreed with a referendum to abolish spring hunting.
Dr Muscat said the citizenship programme even got the European Commission’s approval and everyone, “except the Opposition leader”, was now in favour.
The comment was pounced upon by Dr Busuttil, who insisted the national interest was not defined by the Prime Minister. “I know that you like being seen with dictators, but we live in a European democracy and it is wrong to describe criticism as betrayal,” Dr Busuttil said.
He criticised the government’s decision to pardon consumers who bribed Enemalta officials to acquire a tempered smart meter.
Describing the decision as “wrong”, he insisted it should have been the courts that decided the fate of consumers.
However, Dr Muscat defended the decision, arguing it helped provide information with which “the big fish” could be caught and claiming that there could be “even bigger fish” than the Enemalta officials who had already been charged and sentenced in court.
On the gas power station to be built at Delimara, Dr Muscat reiterated that anchoring the LNG storage tanker out at sea posed a higher risk and insisted the project would be safe.
Dr Busuttil claimed putting the tanker inside Marsaxlokk Bay put people’s lives at risk and urged the Prime Minister to re-evaluate the project by placing the unit out at sea.
Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola joined the debate in its last 10 minutes and defended his party’s stand in favour of the abrogative referendum to ban spring hunting.
Dr Muscat insisted he did not agree with the referendum strategy because it set a dangerous precedent, but if enough signatures were collected he would have to adhere to the legal obligations imposed on him by the Referendum Act.