Labour leadership contender Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca yesterday visited the Birgu market as part of her campaign in the run-up to the election, promising she would be “a leader who unites” and to remain “a politician among the people.”
Speaking to journalists at the end of her visit outside the Birgu gate, the Labour MP said it was about time the Labour Party stopped experimenting and focus on its direction instead.
“This is a choice about the direction we want to give to our party,” she said about the leadership contest. “We can’t keep experimenting with our party. We have lost three elections and a referendum. We have to decide on the direction.”
She said the election of party leader was about strengthening the MLP and democracy, but this could only be done with a united party that had a sense of identity.
“People are telling me lots of things, they have lots of things to say. Having a united party is fundamental, together with having a clear idea of our identity as a social democratic party. It’s essential to have this sense of identity to understand what binds us together,” she said. “I have a lot of ideas but I don’t want to be a dictator but the leader of a team, that’s why I’m here today.”
Asked how she will vote on Friday, when the delegates will be voting on the petition to open the election to all party members, Coleiro Preca said she felt she had “a conflict of interest” and she did not wish to influence the voters.
“A lot of members I talked to would wish to see a wider electoral base but not all of them think like that,” she said. “I’m a politician, not a manager. I want to live with the people, among the people. We have to be doers and fieldworkers; we have to be with the people.”
Coleiro Preca also appealed to the government to establish a task force that would come up with mitigation measures in the face of the fuel and food price hikes. “It’s true that the price hikes stem from international circumstances but other countries are taking measures to minimise the impact on their people. This is affecting the prices of our staple food and it’s clear the price hikes will remain over a long period of time.”