Labour has let down the workers, Conrad Borg Manché says in first PN event
People should not be blinded by political allegiances, former Gzira Labour mayor says
The Labour Party no longer represented the workers, which was why he had left it, former Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manché said on Wednesday in his first address since being confirmed as a PN candidate.
The PL, he said, had become a party that was only interested in people “filling their pockets, and gaining personal power”.
Borg Manché served as Gżira mayor for nine years, first with the Labour Party and later as an independent.
Following a standing ovation as he took the stage at a PN event in Qormi, the lawyer by profession spoke about the challenges he faced in switching political parties, and highlighted that the country should no longer remain divided by “colours”. People, he insisted, should not be blind in their political allegiances.
He spoke of his work as the Labour mayor of Gżira for nearly a decade, and how he was always guided by his principles and put the interest of the community first and foremost.
He said that those who had voted for him as a Labour candidate for local elections "need to open their eyes to the reality of what the (Labour) party has become."
“I understand and know what it feels like to be betrayed. I know what it is like to feel betrayed, to see the party of the workers be turned into one that is only interested in filling their pockets and personal power.”
He said the government now prioritised businessmen over residents, recalling the “betrayal” of the Gżira garden project, where a part of the public garden was proposed to become a petrol station. The local council had challenged the Lands Authority decision, and in 2023, it won the court battle to protect the garden.
“That is proof how this government is only interested in helping those who have money to influence people,” he said.
He also spoke in detail about the government’s promised family law reforms, criticising how there has been no action for years.
“We deserve laws that protect families, and children deserve the presence of both their mothers and fathers. It is unfair that there are parents who need to ask permission to see their children,” he said.
“We have a system that creates winners and losers. The true losers in this system are our children.”
He said his conscience would not allow him to support the Labour Party, a party he said, which has forgotten the people. He ended his speech praising Alex Borg, who he described as an honest leader leading a Nationalist Party which offered a true alternative to government.