[WATCH] ‘It’s not all about you’, Opposition leader tells Prime Minister

This month's European Parliament and local council elections were not a choice between Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and himself, Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday.

Speaking during a political activity in Għargħur, Delia accused the Muscat of being unwilling to accept that the elections weren’t about him.

“He wants a general election, he can call it that if he wants, and he is also saying that he is leaving before the next election - its all about him,” he said.

He called out the Prime Minister for the manner in which he used Castille Palace to make his entrance during last week’s 1 May mass meeting, in what he described as a “cult-like celebration of a single leader”. 

For the Nationalist Party, he said that Worker’s Day meant something different. It was a celebration of the fact that the country has now been a part of the European Union for 15 years.

The Labour Party, he said, had never believed in Europe or that the country could grow in Europe, unlike the PN.

“Joseph Muscat doesn’t believe in his MEP candidates…We believe in our ten candidates because we know they understand what Europe is, they believe in it, and they are truly capable of succeeding in Europe,” he said.

Turning to the PN’s incumbent MEPs, Delia said that despite Muscat’s claims, they had never fought against Malta, but rather fought for Malta. “Their fight to strengthen Europe’s borders…for a proper work-life balance and for proper conditions for all workers.”  

‘Joseph Muscat only interested in importing slavery’

Delia also accused Prime Minister of only being interested in “importing slavery” in order to create different classes of people in society.

“He wants to import people and create different classes of people who are treated differently,” Delia said. “Maltese and Gozitans are treated differently by Joe Muscat because Gozitans are paid less for the same work.”

The same applied to men and women, he said, placing the blame for the gender pay gap on the Muscat. 

“That is Joseph Muscat for you, a person for who people mean nothing,” he said. “They are just numbers on a paper which he can buy or sell.”

Delia made reference to comments by the Prime Minister during the first debate between the two last week, and where he said he wanted to see Maltese workers performing better paying and professional jobs.   

He said it was inconceivable to have the leader of a socialist party look down on manual labour and those who worked to provide that which the country needed on a daily basis, like farmers and delivery.

Turning to those “who wished to work in a different job”, he pointed to Eurostat figures showing that Malta’s rate of early school leavers, suggesting that this was linked to the government’s treatment of Maltese teachers.

Unlike the Labour Party, Delia said that the PN believed in the country’s people and its businesses who it wanted to succeed in Europe.  

Vote for labour a vote for tax harmonisation

Delia accused Muscat of being reluctant to accept that his party was the socialist party, and that it was a part of the European Socialists political grouping.

He said that the Labour Party was represented by the European Socialists’ candidate for European Commission President Frans Timmermans and had endorsed his manifesto calling for tax harmonisation across the bloc.

“This means that he wants Europe to dictate Malta’s tax system. This means we will lose our sovereignty over how we structure our country’s financial package and the way we attract serious investment to our country,” Delia said.

He said this meant that the financial services sector, which the PN had set up and which had produced thousands of job opportunities for Maltese workers, would be threatened.

According to the Opposition leader, since 2016, two-thirds of Maltese workers were earning less than previously were.

“The only sector that is increasing in revenue, and this is the sector that Joseph Muscat and his socialist party, and the European socialists with Timmermans leading the charge, want to remove from Malta,” Delia said, insisting that the Prime Minister did not care.

Ultimately, he said the Nationalist Party was the only on that could be trusted to act on behalf of the Maltese and Gozitan people, both in Europe as well as on a local level.