The people’s vote in the EP elections yesterday was a clear message to the Nationalist government that they will no longer allow anyone to take them for a ride.
“We are seeing the Gonzi government falling to pieces. Yesterday’s was not a vote of protest but a vote of choice in favour of Labour," Dr Muscat said when addressing enthusiastic supporters celebrating in front of the party’s headquarters in Hamrun.
Thousands of flag waving supporters started gathering outside PL headquarters as soon as it was clear that the party had won the EP elections by a landslide, garnering 55 percent of the vote against the PN’s 40 percent, a majority of over 33,000 votes.
Dr Muscat said that PL supporters used to be told that this day would never come.
“But it has. What we have is not a party’s victory but a victory of a movement of people united together.
“No party could, on its own, obtain the result we achieved today. We have today given birth to a progressive movement. From now on, the Maltese and Gozitans have one clear choice - between the parties of yesterday and the movement of today and the future. A movement without frontiers which does not see red or blue but a coalition of people united together for change,” he said to applause.
Dr Muscat thanked all those who yesterday voted for PL candidates, including those who did so for the first time. He also thanked those who chose other parties saying that this was a democracy and these people would also be welcomed in this progressive movement.
The Labour leader also had a word for those who did not vote.
“It is my duty to listen to your message and I have to see that next time you use your vote joining this progressive movement for a better tomorrow.”
The new progressive movement, Dr Muscat said, was uniting people from every sector - middle class, pensioners, students and young people, who made this victory possible and who were feeling that the PL had become their natural party.
But this, he said, was only the point of departure.
“Let’s celebrate quietly today but we have to start working again tomorrow..."
Dr Muscat started his address saying that today he was missing, more than ever before, the late PL MP Karl Chircop.