The time had come for the country’s “soldiers of steel” to prove themselves once again and turn up to vote in the European Parliament election on May 24 to give the government a majority of votes, turning the occasion into a historic one for Malta, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this afternoon.
Addressing a Labour mass meeting in Cospicua as part of the party’s May 1 celebrations, Dr Muscat said he was proud to be the son of a worker, of a self-employed.
He had not found a ready-made bed and had not come from some dynasty or other.
The coming election, he said, was one where the people would be saying whether they wanted the government to continue implementing the rest of its promises. Although a lot already had been done, a lot still needed to be done.
The government, for example, wanted to continue to fight precarious employment and although it had already embarked on this battle, there was still a lot to do.
“We did a lot but we could not do everything in a year. This government is not perfect but it has positive energy to obtain results.”
Addressing himself to people who had not got what they expected from the new government, Dr Muscat said a lot remained to be done here as well, without causing new injustices, and he was sure that those who were disappointed acknowledged that not everything could be done in a year.
Dr Muscat said that to stay at home on May 24 would be a vote for those who laughed when the people voted for lower electricity rates, free childcare and civil liberties.
Those who did not need convincing to go to vote, should convince someone else to also cast their vote. “Let us be the first Maltese government to obtain a majority of votes in EP elections… The road ahead is tough but I will continue to work with all my strength and hope that you will work with me,” he said.
Earlier, Dr Muscat spoke about the youth guarantee programme and other initiatives in education aimed at helping students, both those who had found their feet in the system and others who had fallen behind and would end up not knowing how to read and write.
He said that his government would soon be presenting a new employment policy as the current one was 10 years old. It had consulted the social partners and worked with experts to do in one year what the previous government had not done in 10.
He said that while under the Nationalist administration four new jobs used to be created for every additional person registering for employment, his government had increased this to nine new jobs.
Dr Muscat also spoke on the country’s economic success, the reduction in deficit and in income tax, free childcare and lower water and electricity tariffs.
“We implemented what for others had been impossible,” he said.
The previous government, he said, had increased fuel prices by more than 40 per cent in four years and the people had to use 15 per cent of their cost of their living increase to cover these increases.
This government had reduced prices and was keeping them stable. Those who ridiculed what was announced yesterday showed how the Opposition was still cut off from families and did not understand the realities the people lived in.