Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reiterated that “no circumstance” would convince him to run for another election.

Muscat has frequently made his stand clear; that he will run for one term as leader of the opposition, and serve two terms as prime minister. He is in his second term as prime minister, and will not be contesting the next election.

Speaking in an interview on Ghandi Xi Nghid, Muscat was asked by presenter Andrew Azzopardi whether there could be circumstances which convince him to reconsider his stand. “No circumstance will change my opinion,” Muscat replied.

MAM Strike

Earlier in the interview, Muscat was asked about the doctor’s strike held last Tuesday by the Medical Association of Malta.  Muscat said “the road in the middle is that we must arrive at some understanding with what we have.”

The strike, which happened last Monday, was ordered over the way St Luke's, Karin Grech and Gozo Hospitals were transferred to Steward Healthcare, in what, the MAM says, is a breach of the doctors' collective agreement. 

“If MAM was talking about these issues when we were making the deal with VGH, I would have understood their point,” he said. “But this is an issue we solved months ago,” the Prime Minister argued, and added that MAM should have made these arguments “when the agreements were signed with VGH.”

Asked why Steward Health Care did not come forward instead of VGH, Muscat replied that they “did not apply to come.” He continued that if Steward were out of the question, the hospitals would not go back to the government but would go back to VGH. “If Steward’s did not come, VGH would still be in charge of the hospitals and MAM would not have said anything,” said Muscat.

Azzopardi went on to highlight that many unions from different sectors have shown to be distressed of late; including MUM, FSWS, Air Malta unions and the teachers’ union.

Muscat argued that this distress all brought to surface in a similar timeframe “is not a coincidence.” He deemed it “a virtuous circle,” where one union wants to benefit after witnessing another sector benefiting. “When, for example, a union sees teachers getting better conditions, they say that they want to better ones too.”

Vote 16

Turning to discuss Vote16, Muscat said that the next debate in parliament should be the idea to allow 16-year-olds to contest. 

Constitutional reform

Discussing the constitutional reform, Muscat expressed his views that the two main parties in parliament need to agree on a similar structure with which to work with, following which there must be an agreement with other parties, and consultation on a local level. "Discussions need to begin on a local level, with academics, NGOs, political parties, student bodies, representatives, Maltese living abroad and foreigners who live in Malta," he said, adding that he would not "exclude a referendum" on the matter. Asked by Azzopardi whether he would be happy with the President taking the lead for a constitutional reform, Muscat agreed, adding that he would not exclude other people from providing their opinion on matters when needed.

Number of students at AUM

Bringing up the subject of the number of students at the American University of Malta, Azzopardi asked how many students will attend the university this year and next. Muscat replied that the contract stipulates that 4000 students need to be attending the university for years after the project ends. "The timeline of the project ends in 2024, so from 2024 we then have four years to reach 4000," he said.

"The government is there to monitor the project and to make sure that they are working within the timeline. The government is not running AUM," he stated.