‘GonziPN has imploded’ – Joseph Muscat

The electorate will have to wait until after January 7 for it to discover the details behind Labour's promised reduction of water and electricity tariffs.

Addressing a televised press conference at his party's headquarters in Hamrun last night,  Labour leader Joseph Muscat replied to MaltaToday that "the beef will be served on January 7."

While drawing laughter from his MPs and Labour candidates who flanked him during the press conference, Muscat said that his party was prepared to launch its manifesto and present the details of what it was pledging to the electorate.

"But as we have just agreed with the outgoing Prime Minister, we will have to wait until January 7, when we will launch our electoral campaign."

Standing before an all-blue backdrop, with the words 'certainty and stability' behind his right shoulder, Joseph Muscat described government's parliamentary defeat last night as "GonziPN's implosion."

He said that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi defied everything and faced "what was blatantly obvious to the whole country but not to himself."

Muscat said that he was surprised that the Prime Minister announced March 9, as the date for the elections. "The sooner the better, but a long campaign would only lengthen the incumbent's government's agony," he said.

Muscat accused Gonzi of putting Austin Gatt before the national interest, and decided to defy the obvious and sought his own party's implosion.

"Gonzi preferred Gatt over the country's stability," Muscat said, adding that the Prime Minister will be remembered for losing his parliamentary majority for five times during this Legislature.

Muscat said that he was agreeing with the Prime Minister to start the electoral campaign on January 7, and augured that the electorate would be able to spend the Christmas season with serenity.

While appealing to government to refrain from engaging in any contractual obligations until the elections, Muscat said that the Opposition expected to be consulted on the ongoing negotiations with the European Union, about the pending financial package for the seven years to come, starting in 2014.

Asked about his position regarding the controversy surrounding Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco - the President of the Malta Olympic Committee, currently embroiled in the London Olympics ticketing scandal - Muscat said that he was refraining from commenting on the judiciary, and said that if elected to power, he would abide by the recommendations of the Commission for the Administration of Justice.