Labour MP Chris Cardona, one of the three contenders for the post of deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, has called on the delegates to keep in mind that they should vote for the individual who fulfilled the parameters of the new leadership.
Speaking during a press conference yesterday morning at Cordina Hall, in the heart of home town Birkirkara, Cardona said: “The deputy leader should reflect the same political image that sees the Labour party as one that welcomes the moderate and progressive people and that reaches out to appeal to the electorate.
“The moderates are those who believe in social-democratic policy and the progressives are those want our country to move forward and really become a European country with a clear agenda.
“This is not something on which we can have a choice, but is something where we have the duty to ensure that the party leadership is composed of people who deliver a single and clear message to the electorate,” Cardona insisted.
Cardona heaped praise on Joseph Muscat as the new Labour leader: “I have known Joseph since we were youths 20 years ago. I know the kind of person he is: very organized, innovative, with a very good foresight. I think that under his leadership, we will move on towards achieving a winning generation of progressives and moderates.”
The Birkirkara MP said he believed there was the need to rethink Labour’s policy-making by ensuring that policy presented to the electorate was “bullet proof and water-tight” and could not be attacked on the eve of an election.
“We should ensure that the party should not have policies which are detrimental to the Labour Party, or policies which go against Labour’s founding principles,” Cardona said. The party’s policies must address the needs and expectations of the electorate.
All this, he said, would be achieved by widening the discussion of the party’s agenda to “a wider array of people who are genuinely interested in seeing the country governed on the progressive principles of the Labour Party.”
He also called on delegates to vote for a deputy leader that had shown loyalty towards the party, as he had done. “We don’t show loyalty only with words but also in the actions that we do.
“We have to give a clear example, especially those of us who are contesting for such an important post in the Labour Party, that what we will continue doing so as we’ve done over the past few years,” Cardona insisted.
He thanked the other contenders for the post of deputy leader for parliamentary affairs – Anglu Farrugia and Carmelo Abela – for conducting a “serene and mature” campaign.
Cardona also paid tribute to the decision by Labour MP Josè Herrera to bow out of the campaign.

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt