The new PN headquarters hosted its first political activity as Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi kicked off the election campaign with the party faithful in Pieta.

Hundreds of people packed into the hall and once the chants of “Gonzi... Gonzi...Gonzi...” had died down, the leader of the PN joked: “We’ve only just built this place and it’s already too small. We’re going to have to make it bigger.”

The crowd gave Dr Gonzi a very warm welcome, one party supporter even going as far as pinching his cheek, as he tried to make his way to the main stage where youngsters sat wearing tee-shirts with the logo ‘Yes, together, everything is possible.”

It took the Prime Minister about five minutes to get started, his voice drowned out by the cacophony of noise that the supporters were stirring up.

Dr Gonzi began: “This tremendous welcome is a good sign. Four years ago I became Prime Minister of Malta, and look what we have achieved. We have left it in a better state than the one we found it in.”

He continued: “Now it is time to give the country back to the people, and allow them to decide who they want to lead this country for the next legislative period.”

Dr Gonzi said that the date of the election, 8 March, has a lot of significance as it is the fifth anniversary since the people of Malta decided that the nation’s future lay within the European Union. “And five years ago, the opposition leader tried to tell people that he had won the referendum,” he said, saying that this showed that the politics made by the PN and MLP were a gulf apart.

He said that at the time, Dr Alfred Sant had told the people of Malta that their future lay outside the EU as they were small fry and would be gobbled up. “But that is not the case. We have never been afraid of anything, and why should we be when together everything is possible? We have proved it, we are making a better Malta thanks to the e850 million we got from Europe. And I remind you, Dr Sant told us all that all we would get was Lm1.5 million,” he said.

Speaking with regard to Dr Sant, Dr Gonzi said: “I went to the President’s office to tell him to dissolve parliament, knowing that the Malta we leave behind is a better Malta than when we took office. When Dr Sant went to do the same 10 years ago, he did it because the country had been plunged into a crisis.”

He said that Dr Sant wants a new start for Malta. “But the last time he had the opportunity to do this and had to call an election, the general public told him to get out of the way, as they wanted a Nationalist administration,” he said. Dr Gonzi said that the MLP’s plans for Malta were ‘disastrous’. “We have registered a lot of successes. We have a record low regarding unemployment, we are giving out more children’s allowance, we have built Mater Dei, SmartCity is in the offing and we are giving more to our pensioners. Yet, we will not stop working hard,” he said.

Dr Gonzi said that the PN achieved success because it never took anything for granted. “And we will do the same in this electoral campaign my friends, and take nothing for granted,” he said.

The PN leader concluded yesterday’s rally by encouraging people to attend the activities that are being organised, but appealed for calm, for everyone to keep a cool head and be rational.