Muscat: ‘We’re too small to be divided’

As the world looked forward to the first day of 2013, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat’s thoughts yesterday lay three months ahead.

March 10, the day after the general election, “should be a day like any other”, with people not letting their political choices get in the way of national unity, Dr Muscat said.

The Opposition leader used his end-of-year address to promise to lead a positive electoral campaign, “based on unity”.

National challenges such as the six-month presidency of the EU in 2017 would need the backing of the entire population if they were to be won, “regardless of who is in government,” he said.

“We’re too small to be divided... we need to use everyone’s skills, irrespective of their own politics, if we are to raise our country to the levels its people deserve,” the Labour Party leader added.

Doing so would help create more workplaces which ensured people “not only existed, but actually lived” and foster the economic growth on which social services, free healthcare and education were built.

“These are our priorities for families and businesses, and they’re priorities I think we can all unite around,” Dr Muscat said.

The Opposition leader thanked politicians on either side of the political spectrum for their willingness to put themselves forward and argue Malta’s future.