Updated 6.30pm with Edwin Vassallo reaction
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that he will outline his vision for the Labour Party and a particular aspect it should focus on when he addresses an extraordinary session of the Labour general conference on Thursday.
The conference wil l be meeting to elect a new Labour deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, succeeding Louis Grech, who has stepped down.
The election is being contested by ministers Helena Dalli, Edward Scicluna and Chris Fearne. The winner will become deputy prime minister.
In a brief interview on One Radio this morning, Dr Muscat referred to the current debate on gay marriages and said he was concerned about how some Opposition MPs were speaking against the law, but would vote for it in parliament.
He insisted that this was not an issue of tolerance of the gay community, but ensuring that there was equality. Tolerance, he said, was about just putting up with something or somebody who is bothering you.
He said he disagreed with Opposition proposals to retain current marriage law terminology and simply add a new category. This categorisation, he said, would be introducing social apartheid.
Politicians, he said, should not try to sweep changes in society under the carpet.
“Do not bury your heads in the sand, acknowledge the changes which society is going through,” he said, adding that change would happen whether politicians wanted it or not.
Dr Muscat also hailed data issued yesterday showing a government surplus in the first three months of the year. This was the first such surplus in the first quarter, he said, and it was achieved even though at the time there had already been talk of an early election.
In a reaction on Facebook later, Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo said Dr Muscat did not have the credentials of political honesty to be an "examiner" of his conscience.
"The examiner of my honest is God and not another politician who is not permitting others to take a free decision," adding that he was against politicians turning into demi-gods.