Labour leader Joseph Muscat declared that the Labour Party was ready to do everything in the national interest “as parents are ready to do everything for their children”.
Muscat said this during a visit to the Mellieha Labour club accompanied by deputy leaders Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela yesterday morning as part of their nationwide tour of party clubs.
The Labour leader and the deputy leaders were given a rousing welcome by a substantial number of Mellieha residents and other people who thronged the hall at the Mellieha Labour club as well as the road in front of the club.
Muscat said that during the first hundred days of the Gonzi 2 administration, the thing that saddened all those who have the country at heart was the “arrogant attitude of those who after a whole 20 years had not learnt the lesson.”
Muscat said that after joining the Partnership for Peace without any consultation whatsoever despite the fact that it was not even part of the PN’s electoral programme, this week the Nationalist Government showed its arrogance again when it announced the privatisation of the shipyards without any consultation whatsoever.
“The Prime Minister neither consulted the workers’ representatives’ nor considered Labour’s offer of assistance. The Labour Party is never going to accept this degree of arrogance,” Muscat insisted.
Muscat said that the prime minister’s game was “to make the Labour Party get angry and it was because of this that Gonzi shut the door in the party’s face when faced with the offer of a national front on matters of national interest, like ST Microelectronics and the Shipyards”.
“The easiest thing for the Labour Party was to get angry and remain on the sideline. However this would have led the country to suffer and Labour is not ready to let the country suffer,” he insisted.
It was for this reason that the Labour Party welcomed wholeheartedly the General Workers’ Union (GWU)’s proposal to set up a task force on the future of the Shipyards.
“If the Government accepts the GWU’s proposal, the Labour Party is ready to sit at the table and discuss immediately and without and conditions. We will now see what the Government will do and whether it really has the national interest at heart,” Muscat insisted.
At the beginning of the activity, Muscat saluted Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, one of the Labour leadership contenders, who was present at the Mellieha Labour club.
“Bartolo has taught me how to be a Maltese and a European not only through one’s mind but also through one’s heart,” Muscat said. “Labour also needs Evarist Bartolo’s critical intellect to open a new political season in our country,” he insisted.