Dr Sant said this during a discussion meeting entitled Xoghol, Harsien, Dinjita (Work, Protection and Dignity) at the MLP headquarters in Hamrun yesterday.

The Opposition Leader said the party was encouraging its supporters to vote Labour in the European Parliament elections because it was in their and their families’ interests to do so.

Dr Sant said: “The election on 12 June is not about voting for or against the EU. Whoever is trying to put this message across is trying to take people for a ride or has not understood the concept at all.”

Dr Sant said that Malta is joining the EU, that is fact. “And the duty of the MLP is to defend the rights and interests of workers in a context of ever increasing unemployment and redundancies,” he said.

He said things that go on in the EP affect Malta because decisions taken there can affect employment or working conditions. “It is true that the MLP had said that our allocation of five seats in the EP was a lame state of affairs. But it is better to have a feeble representation than none at all. Or even worse to have someone not interested in defending workers rights to be sitting on the European Parliament,” said Dr Sant.

He said Maltese needed a hefty socialist representation in Brussels, which would in turn ally with the European Socialists’ Party (PES).

He said the PES will put forward ideas and proposals to generate employment, in fact an upcoming PES discussion about the party’s manifesto will also be based on employment.