Malta needed real, national, action to put it on the road to prosperity, which was why the political group Azzjoni Nazzjonali was so named, party leader Josie Muscat told a public meeting in Zejtun today.
He said that as a party, it preferred a national coalition government, composed of the best elements of the PN and the MLP, with AN in the middle to see that the best decisions were taken in the interest of the country.
Dr Muscat reiterated that AN was set up to give the strength to the people – and, therefore, could not be described as an extreme right-wing party, as has been the case.
It would be promoting a law on referenda, whereby the people could ask for laws and amend them, he said.
Dr Muscat said that despite being a member of the EU, Malta needed to defend its interests. And change needed to be inspired by local needs, and not just EU requirements.
“How can I now accept the servile response to the dictates of Brussels, dictates based on the vision, needs and requirements of countries whose smallest town is bigger than Malta and Gozo put together?
“Brussels tells us we cannot shoot birds, while they sell arms which are used to kill people.”
Dr Muscat also spoke on his party’s proposals for the family.
“I have been accused by a local newspaper that I cannot, as a politician, ask for a stop to the practice of a single mother claiming the father is unknown without as a doctor refusing to deliver the children of a single parent. If anybody is scraping the barrel this is it. I hope that the next issue will ask why a lawyer will defend a client he knows is guilty, why a teacher should bother with a student who has no hope of making it, why a priest should bother forgiving the sins of constant relapsers in their frailty.,” he said.
The family, he said, needed to be defended.
“There are those who will look away while the drug pushers carry out their vile work. There are those who want to create a society tolerant to all sorts of excess, which include the killing of an aborted child or the casual splitting up of a family through divorce but not, of course, the terrible crime of shooting of a bird even if I do not hold with those who break the regulations. It’s this that bothers our liberated writers, not the sacrifices you have made to give your children a better life, not the sacrifices you have made to give your country a chance to fashion its own destiny,” Dr Muscat said.