PN launch Malta Taghna Lkoll 'official sticker album'

World Cup fever appears to have reached the Dar Centrali as the Nationalist Party launched the "official Malta Taghna Lkoll sticker album" - a collection of 'faces' whom PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami claims have been "pigging out" under the Labour governemnt.

The team line-ups are a bit incomplete too: forrmer PBS broadcaster Lou Bondì, now on an undisclosed, salaried position with the National Festivities Committee. A retired judge appointed by former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici - Philip Sciberras - makes the grade, ostensibly because he is a former Labour MP.

Beppe Fenech Adami unveils 'sticker album' of meritocracy

The rest include Labour activists who appeared on the party's billboards during the 2013 electoral campaign, members of the Cabinet and the backbench, GWU officials, former ONE journalists, the commander of the Armed Forces and other volunteers during the Labour electoral campaign in 2013.

The album cover features Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in goalkeeper gear.

Addressing journalists outside the President's Palace in Valletta, Fenech Adami said Labour's meritocracy pledge had been "thrown out of the window".

"The Labour government is working for the few, dedicated to fill the clique's pockets with money," he said. He went on to call the 200 people in question "soldiers of gold".

Flanked by MEP candidates Norman Vella and Ray Bugeja, Fenech Adami said the government wanted people "to satisfy themselves" with a 2c decrease in petrol prices and a 4c increase in stipends.

"But if you are a member of the Labour Party, a relative of a minister or a close friend of the Prime Minister, you will be given preferential treatment."

Once again, Fenech Adami referred to the Prime Minister making use of his own car - reportedly set to cost the taxpayer €70,000 by the end of the legislature - and the appointments given to backbencher Silvio Schembri and the Health Minister's wife.

"Sai Mizzi [wife to energy minister Konrad Mizzi] is receiving €427 per day while students have been given a raise of 4c a day. A student has to wait 30 years to match Mizzi's rate," Fenech Adami said.

According to Fenech Adami, the MEP campaign has revealed the Prime Minister's hypocrisy.

"Next Saturday's election is an opportunity to vote for all PN candidates and send this government a message," he said.

Fenech Adami insisted that the PN MEPs would work in the country's best interest and lobby in those committees where policies affecting Malta are debated.