Abela calls on voters to renew Labour's mandate on Saturday

Prime Minister Robert Abela has called on voters to give Labour their trust again at Saturday's general election, telling supporters at a campaign event that the party has never turned its back on people and never will.

"This movement was born as a dream, the dream of people who suffered prejudice, of people who were looked down upon because they always worked for the small and the vulnerable," Abela said on Tuesday evening. "All they wanted was for their children to have the same opportunities as everyone else."

Abela opened his speech by thanking supporters and saying he was proud of what the movement had shown during the campaign, that it was a movement of opportunity, aspiration, and potential, and one that belonged to everyone.

He described it as the movement of the worker, of those starting out in life, of those setting up a business, and of those with the drive to move forward.

He said the movement had grown because it had kept walking alongside people, and that its doors had always been thrown open, including to those who had not always supported Labour but who had the good of the country at heart. From that point, he said, the movement had become a wave of change.

Abela said Malta had surpassed countries it once could only have dreamed of matching in terms of the economy, employment, and wealth creation. He said the country had also made strides in civil rights, breaking down walls of prejudice he described as thick, which the movement had brought down.

"We changed how we look at each other, how we respect each other, and above all how we give everyone the opportunity to reach their dream," he said.

He pointed to the party's handling of the pandemic and every major challenge that followed as proof of what national unity could achieve, saying that every imaginable difficulty had been overcome, one after another, over the past six years, and that Malta had always come out stronger.

He told the crowd that Vision 2050 and the Int Malta project had been shaped with workers, employers, students, professionals, and social partners, all, he said, brought together in a spirit of national unity with one shared goal: to move Malta and its people forward.

He described the election manifesto as one written from the lived experiences of ordinary people, built measure by measure around their realities, their aspirations, and their hardships.

"Every measure was thought out around your needs," he said, "so that every step of life becomes lighter, more beautiful, and stronger, from before birth all the way through to old age."

Abela said the movement would only begin to fall apart the moment it ignored the cry of even one person living on these islands. "This movement kept growing because we kept walking the journey of life with people," he said.

He also asked voters to answer three questions before casting their ballots: who had shown competence and credibility during the five weeks of campaigning; who had the best concrete, feasible ideas; and who had the best team to lead the country forward amid complex international and geopolitical challenges.

He listed Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg, Clyde Caruana, Silvio Schembri, Jonathan Attard, Byron Camilleri, and Miriam Dalli among those on his team, adding that the district had the privilege of having ministers, parliamentary secretaries, and candidates of the highest competence.

Abela addressed those voting Labour for the first time, telling them to be proud of their choice because they believed in the Int Malta project. He said he was grateful to all those who trusted that Labour was ready to carry out an ever greater dream for the country.

He closed by urging even those still sceptical about whether their vote could make a difference to take part in the democratic process. "Don't let someone else decide for you," he said. "Don't let someone else decide for your family and where they want to take this country."

He invited them to ask themselves which side they had seen competence, ability, and credibility on, and to vote for all Labour candidates on Saturday.