Victory should not be taken for granted - PM

Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami yesterday warned Nationalist Party supporters not to take victory in the election for granted and urged them to try and convince more people to vote for the PN.

"We can't waste these last seven days. Though I believe we will win the election, we have to drive the message home that every vote counts," the prime minister said during a political meeting at Birzebbuga last night.

He warned that the PN could risk not being elected to government if it did not garner an absolute majority of votes on April 12.

This was why, he said, it was essential to vote for all the Nationalist candidates.

Dr Fenech Adami's speech revolved mainly around the issue of law and order, saying his party had been a determining factor in instilling a feeling of security in the country.

The police had been given the necessary tools to operate and be successful in tackling crime and drug trafficking.

Nowadays, nobody could even imagine that the police could be responsible for triggering off some of the type of ghastly political incidents that had occurred in the '80s, Dr Fenech Adami said.

He dismissed the fears instigated by some that Maltese soldiers could be forced to go and fight wars.

The truth was that soldiers would be able to volunteer for the EU's humanitarian missions. The EU was, after all, a force for peace.

Dr Fenech Adami recalled that it was a Nationalist government which had negotiated two collective agreements in the public sector, to the benefit of tens of thousands of workers.

In one of the videos shown at the public meeting, a number of HSBC employees expressed concern about their job security after opposition leader Alfred Sant recently promised to trim the bank's role in the economy.