[facebook_video video_url="https://www.facebook.com/josephmuscatdotcom/videos/10156331886929741"][/facebook_video]
Updated 7.56pm - Added PN statement
The Labour Party was not surprised by the June 3 general election result because it “was not locked up in an ivory tower,” Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told a crowd in Gozo this evening.
“We were not surprised because we have our fingers on the people’s pulse,” Dr Muscat told a crowd gathered to celebrate the PL’s electoral victory in Qala.
Dr Muscat dismissed those who did not expect the result as being out of touch and caught within their own echo chamber, before going on to offer his Nationalist Party rivals a word of advice.
“There’s no need for an analysis of the defeat. All they have to do is read the report of their 2013 loss. They made the exact same mistakes,” he said.
Dr Muscat, who will be attending a European Parliament Pana Committee debate concerning the rule of law in Malta next Wednesday, said PN MEPs should be more cautious when airing their grievances on foreign shores.
“We’re not saying don’t attack Joseph Muscat. But Maltese people will be weighing their [MEPs'] words, because we are all Malta.”
He told the crowd how, on his first day of his second term, he had gone to have a coffee “at the company they [the PN] told us would be leaving Malta.”
“That was a lie, and we revealed it on our very first day,” he said, with reference to rumours that gaming group Betsson was ready to pack its bags and leave the island.
“And likewise, the biggest lie will also come crashing down,” he said as the crowd roared. Dr Muscat was referring to allegations, currently the subject of a magisterial inquiry, that his wife is the ultimate beneficial owner of Panama company Egrant.
Dr Muscat praised PL supporters for their responsible celebrations. “It was noisy,” he said with a smile, “but I was extremely happy to see there were no incidents.”
MP watchdog to be appointed over summer
The Prime Minister dedicated much of his speech to calls for political unity, saying Malta was “too small to be divided.”
He offered a hand of friendship to his rival Simon Busuttil, saying that regardless of the bad blood between the two, he was willing to work with him for as long as he remained Opposition Leader.
The Nationalist Party was quick to respond, saying in a statement that if Dr Muscat meant what he said, he would reverse a series of "vindictive" civil service transfers he had ordered upon winning reelection.
"It's no use for the Prime Minister to talk about unity in public only to then wreck people's lives behind everyone's back," the PN said.
In his Qala speech, the Prime Minister pledged to appoint a commissioner for standards in public life by the summer, saying the nominee would be selected with bipartisan agreement.
That was the third of three proposals he said the Labour party was presenting as an olive leaf to the Opposition, with Dr Muscat also promising to allow President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca to review and amend his opening speech to parliament to ensure it was not politically divisive and saying the deputy speaker would be appointed by the Opposition.
The latter proposal is in line with practice in recent legislatures, with the Speaker nominated by the ruling party and the deputy picked by the Opposition. In the previous legislature, PN stalwart Censu Galea filled the role.