News • October 12 2003

Alfred Grixti

What new ideas or strategies would you like to bring to the position?
I do not think that anyone should be discussing such party strategies in the full glare of the media. No organisation does so. What I will say is that I have been active in the party for the past twenty-two odd years, starting off in Labour Youths, and have voluntarily served the party ever since, just as I am also doing now through my involvement with maltastar.com. I even have management experience outside the party. So basically I bring all these years of experience, and my professional qualifications, to the post. I know how the party works from the inside and I know what needs to be changed and how to go about implementing this process of change. One thing I will bring for sure, as I have always done, is an open door policy.
How should the Labour Party face the coming years?
With courage and conviction, as always.

Why, in your opinion, did the Labour Party lose the last election?
I would rather you asked me why Labour stands a very good chance of winning the next election. And the answer to that is in the public domain, so I can give it to you. The policy direction that the party is now taking, that of respecting the democratic choice of the people, not like the PN’s refusal to do so in 1996, means that we have at one go both eliminated the EU issue and also shown that Labour is the party best placed to safeguard the interests of Malta and Gozo, and primarily of the Maltese and Gozitan workers and their families first and foremost in this new reality which we will be living come May 1, 2004. So, come next election, the electorate will have the possibility to choose between the already non-performing, incompetent and bankrupt Nationalist government which does Brussels’ bidding unquestioningly and Labour, which has a track record of delivering and good management and knows how to deal with Brussels successfully as the way we tackled the supposedly interim and supposedly engineered landfills issue shows.
Why should people vote for you?
I am meeting the party delegates on both a local and district level. I am putting forward my ideas and my proposals, which I have referred to in reply to your first question, in these very productive meetings. Then it is up to the delegates to decide. I am not conducting a media based campaign and I am not going out of my way to make publicity for myself in the media. That is not my style. And this is not that sort of race. This is all about the party’s delegates listening and closely questioning the people who have decided to stand and offered to be of service to the party. Then it is up to them to decide. And they will decide, as always, in the best interests of the party. I, for one, will, as I have always done, fully respect the decision of the
delegates.