The time of reckoning has arrived. On June 3, the Maltese people will decide whether they want our country and its people to continue on the road of progress and the creation of wealth or take a leap in the dark and risk losing what has been achieved these last four years.

The electoral campaign by both major parties gives a very good indication of what to expect when either of them is elected to power.

Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party have a track record of having implemented 88 per cent of the electoral manifesto in just four years of a five-year legislature. Labour’s electoral pledges are all costed and backed by the present strong economic performance, which the EU predicts will continue, as long as the prevailing economic policies are maintained. That means a change in policies could very well compromise the future.

On the other hand, we have seen Simon Busuttil and the Nationalist Party unprepared for this election. Instead of preparing an electoral manifesto with solid, costed and, thus, sustainable electoral pledges, they wasted their past four years in Opposition making mountains out of molehills and repeating the mantra of “corruption” in almost every project announced by the Labour government.

That mantra has now been blown to smithereens by the EU’s annual country report, which, while commenting about corruption in 14 member states, does not mention the word “corruption” in the part on Malta.

When the Prime Minister blew the whistle, Busuttil and the PN were found so unprepared. And Busuttil started to make wild, uncosted promises, some of which have already been implemented by this government. And when he did mention costings, such as higher minimum pensions, he made a total mess of it.

So on June 3 the choice is actually a very simple one: a vote for Muscat and the Labour movement is a vote for Malta.