Allowing Cyrus Engerer to be a PL candidate was not a mistake because Mr Engerer had been cleared by the first court, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening. Speaking on Dissett on TVM, Dr Muscat said the Engerer saga did not harm the PL, as is apparent by the excellent result obtained by the party on Sunday.

Dr Muscat denied that the EP election result was affected by goodies handed out just before the election. “The Labour victory was a result of 14 months of hard work in favour of families and the economy.” He insisted that, just as incentives were announced in the past few weeks, many others will be announced in the coming weeks, months and years. “We took decisions that were popular and others that were not. In actual fact we took the decisions that needed to be taken.” The Prime Minister said that the Civil Unions decision was not an easy one, given that, according to surveys, 80% were against adoption by gay couples. But a decision was taken nonetheless.

One of the next big decisions will be on public transport. Whilst not saying how much the contract will cost, the Prime Minister insisted that the new public transport service will have to be much better then Arriva. The government will also be embarking on a clampdown on benefits fraud.

On the Enemalta smart meter hacking scandal, the Prime Minister said hundreds will be taken to court after failing to come clean about this abuse. “Hundreds have come clean but others have not and I am insisting that we should lead by example and bring those who cheated the system to justice.”

Dr Muscat reiterated that the government will not let Sunday’s electoral victory go to its head but insisted that the Opposition should also know its place. “We will not become big-headed but we will also not let the Opposition roll over us. Dr Busuttil had turned this election into a referendum on the government. He asked the electorate to give the government a yellow card, but he was the one to be shown the card.”

On the votes obtained by Imperium Europa, Dr Muscat said Norman Lowell might be considered a racist but that does not mean that all who voted for him are racist as well. According to him this showed that migration is an issue and people wanted to get this message across.