Joseph Muscat is using “classist and racist” rhetoric that runs directly counter to socialism to justify some workers’ disastrous working conditions and salaries, left-wing activists Moviment Graffitti said on Friday.

The Cleansing Department hard at work in Sliema.The Cleansing Department hard at work in Sliema.

Dr Muscat argued on Thursday that he did not want Maltese citizens to be “picking up rubbish” or doing manual work in the sun.

“Every job should be dignified but I do not want a situation where the foreigner is comfortable and the Maltese breaking their backs,” Dr Muscat said in a televised debate with Opposition leader Adrian Delia.

The comments incensed many, including Moviment Graffitti activists, who argued that Dr Muscat was trying to make “classist and racist” distinctions between workers and giving big business the impression that foreign labourers were somehow intrinsically less valuable than Maltese ones.

“It is disgusting to try to divide workers based on their nationality, to protect the interests of the wealthy minority which is exploiting workers to fatten their pockets,” Moviment Graffitti said.

During the televised debate, Dr Delia continued to deride Dr Muscat’s Labour Party as the “socialist” party – a label that Moviment Graffitti said the Prime Minister was not worthy of wearing.

Mentalities like Dr Muscat’s, the group said, are the opposite of everything socialism represents. Socialism seeks to ensure that all work is dignified and that all workers are respected, irrespective of their origins, because all work and all workers are needed and important,” the group added.

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