‘Opposition leader blaming Church for his leadership failures’ – Joseph Muscat

The leader of the Opposition has blamed the Church instead of taking on the responsibility of having failed in a crucial leadership test, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said.

According to the Prime Minister, PN leader Simon Busuttil failed to translate his leadership into a clear position on the civil unions bill and instead “sacrificed everything” in an attempt to portray a united party.

“In reality, the PN’s abstention has exposed its rifts. Simon Busuttil is out of his depth and it is pitiful that he chose to attack the Church instead of shouldering the responsibility that he was not capable of taking a decision,” he said.

According to Muscat, the PN was still afflicted by a strong conservative faction.

In an interview with MaltaToday on Sunday, Busuttil said the Catholic Church was living in fear of Muscat and attributed the Church’s silence on the civil unions law to Muscat’s ability to neutralise his opponents in civil society.

Taking Busuttil to task, Muscat said everything boiled down to whether a leader was abled to convince with his arguments.

“Even those who disagree with civil unions respect the fact that Labour took a decision. On the other hand, you don’t know where you stand with Busuttil.”

Likening the issue of civil unions to spring hunting, Muscat said it would be “more popular” to ban spring hunting. Instead, he said, the authorities were enforcing their monitoring measures during the spring hunting season.

“I constantly face complaints because of the strong enforcement implemented. On the other hand there are others who portray hunters as unscrupulous. In reality, those hunters who follow the regulations have nothing to worry about.”

In a wide-ranging interview with ONE head of news Aleander Balzan, Joseph Muscat also spoke about the party’s electoral slogan for European Parliament elections.

With just 34 days to go to when the EU member states go to the polls, both Labour and PN this morning took to the social media to launch their slogans.

Labour went for the Malta Positive Energy slogan which, according to Muscat, reflected government’s new way of doing politics.

“We had a positive campaign during the general elections and our first year in government was full of energy. We started implementing the pledges made,” he said, referring to the implementation of cheaper utility tariffs, free childcare centres, civil unions, increased stipends for students among others.

Muscat said Labour will retain its “positive campaigning” and will not resort to “negative billboards against the Opposition”.

Muscat took a jibe at the PN’s A Better Malta slogan, thanking Busuttil for “admitting that Malta was better off under a Labour government”.

While the PN is aiming for its third seat in parliament, the Prime Minister said the Labour Party was aiming to win the majority of votes. Insisting that the Labour Party was “still the underdog” for the EP elections, he argued that no party in government won the EP elections.