[WATCH] Muscat warns Labour voters to expect retribution from PN government

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warned traditional Labour voters to expect “retribution” if the PN wins the election, as he made a last-ditch appeal to get out the vote.

“To our supporters who think that this government has forgotten about you, irrespective of whether they have reason to feel aggrieved or not, I promise you that we will lend you an ear,” he said. “The PN doesn’t want to listen to you. All they care about is throwing me into prison and, if they win, then you can expect retribution because, in their minds, we have no right to lead the country.”

Muscat was given a hero’s welcome as he arrived in the PL stronghold, spending around half an hour signing autographs and taking selfies with PL supporters in the Birgu village square.

His speech focused on urging people to trust him to implement the second part of his ten-year plan for Malta.

“We were told that we couldn’t reduce electricity bills, that we couldn’t introduce free childcare, that our country wasn’t ready for civil liberties, that there wasn’t enough money for the first-time buyers’ scheme,” he told a political activity in Birgu. “You can feel the difference we made in your pockets and in your quality of life. However, that was only the beginning and what we can do in our next term will surpass all of that.

“We cannot stop halfway through our programme. That would be like a singer who stops singing halfway through a song or an athlete who stops running halfway through a race. It doesn’t make sense.”

He reiterated some of his pledges, incuding to give back public holidays that fall on weekends, to give a bonus of between €200-€340 to every worker, to increase pensions by €8 a week, and to repave every single road in the country.

“I could speak about the wrongdoing of people who had taken commissions from setlling a court case with the previous government, who are being investigated for money laundering, and who have offshore companies,” he said, referring to PN leader Simon Busuttil and PN deputy leaders Beppe Fenech Adami and Mario de Marco respectively. “However, what interests people most is the wealth that we will create and distribute to you.”

Muscat said that the Labour government had given dignity to residents of the south of Malta, after previous PN administrations had treated it as a “rubbish dump” for projects. He added that distinctions between the north and south of Malta should be consigned to the history books, arguing that Malta is too small for such divisions.

He accused the “conservative forces” in Malta of doing everything possible to delay the magisterial inquiry into reports that his wife Michelle Muscat owns the offshore Panama company Egrant because they are scared that the truth will come out before the election.

That comment was ostensibly a dig at the Malta Independent’s content Pierre Portelli who today appeared before magistrate Aaron Bugeja with inquiry extracts of an FIAU report into suspicions that minister Konrad Mizzi had taken kickbacks from the partial privatisation of Enemalta.