The European Parliament has decided to hold a plenary discussion on Malta after the election. There must have been a collective sigh of relief in Castille and thereabouts when the announcement was made. The efforts made by the European People’s Party and the Greens were not enough to fix a date earlier than 3 June.

The government therefore has avoided having Malta on the European centre stage on the eve of the election. It would not have been an easy moment to see Malta’s dirty linen washed in public.

Beleaguered minister Konrad Mizzi made his first appearance at a Labour mass event. His picture had earlier appeared all over Facebook on a hamper containing corned beef and tuna, which was distributed to his supporters. We now await his presence at a press conference.

Labour Party

The Labour Party has finally admitted that the traffic problem is not a perception, and is proposing something for users of public transport to pass the time while they are stuck for hours on end – free wi-fi on public transport. One comment received on this portal yesterday was spot on – one would be able to download The Ten Commandments (a three-hour film) and watch it all from Mellieha to Valletta.

The railway project came up again during the press conference, but the PM could only say that proposals will be explained in the future. One hopes this will be before the election; otherwise people would be free to think that this is just another electoral gimmick. At least the PM did not promise a two-year deadline, which he did for the power station without keeping his word.

That Daphne Caruana Galizia is giving the PM nightmares could be seen from his answer to a question related to what Busuttil said about giving a bad name to the country. Muscat blamed the blogger for this, when he knows that it is the people around him who have let the country down, and not journalists who expose their wrong judgments.

In the evening Muscat played the unity card, speaking openly about the need for division to be avoided. For some, it could be interpreted as a sign to keep the country moving forward as one; for his detractors it is an admission that he is running out of arguments against the allegations of corruption.

Nationalist Party

The PN chose to concentrate on pensions, aiming to increase the lowest pension to bring it in line with the minimum wage. There is some controversy over the figures, with the Labour Party saying that the PN’s measures will cost the country much more than what the PN had calculated.

The PN’s position on the citizenship scheme has shifted since the government announced it as a way to make revenue. The PN had been adamantly against the scheme, and did its best to convince the European Union to stop it. But now that it is in place the PN seems to have had a change of heart and is accepting it. Busuttil said that the scheme will be reviewed. If the PN was so against it, it should say it would scrap it.

Busuttil made an interesting statement, aimed directly at the Labour Party, saying that it should not continue to be led by Muscat and his two closest aides, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

One important announcement was that today he will testify before Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras following the allegations he made about Keith Schembri.

AD

Alternattiva Demokratika and Michael Briguglio have severed their ties. The open challenge made by the former leader – for people to vote PN-PD – did not go down well with the AD leaders. Briguglio has submitted his resignation from the party, which is still to be accepted. But there’s no going back now.