Addressing party supporters in Birzebbuga, Dr Sant said he was assuming responsibility for what he was saying, just like when he mentioned companies which would be adversely affected by European Union membership.

Dr Sant said it was not the MLP’s intention to scare people, but was being a realist. After all, he said, whatever the MLP said just over a year ago before the EU referendum and the general election was now proving to have been the truth and was becoming a reality. The Nationalist Party is not telling the truth about the country’s real situation.

Dr Sant mentioned the electric car company that was intending to come to Malta to produce cars. He said the company is now saying that it faced too much bureaucracy and red tape, and had changed its mind.

Dr Sant said the MLP deserved backing from the Maltese people because workers need a party that defends their interests and protects them from the bad decisions being taken by the government. He said the country was facing a bad economic situation because the PN government did not address the problems when they cropped up but swept them under the carpet for everyone to forget. Now, he said, the problems are surfacing and the government is asking people for sacrifices.

Dr Sant mentioned companies where the government was saying problems existed. Among these were Air Malta, the Malta Drydocks, Sea Malta and Enemalta.

He spoke about the price watch the MLP was insisting on, adding how this will really protect the workers from excessive price increases. He said the government did not agree with this, but then found no problem spending Lm150,000 on the EU accession celebrations.

On the environment, Dr Sant said the recent rodent invasion in Xaghra, Gozo, revealed the government’s lack of planning.

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When he was speaking about the local council elections, being held on the same day as the European Parliament vote, Dr Sant said the councils with a Labour majority had delivered on 80 per cent of their electoral promises. In contrast, those councils with a PN majority had only delivered 50 per cent of what they had promised before the last election three years ago.

Birzebbuga council, he said, had delivered 87 per cent of what it had promised. He praised the council for the way it handled the locality’s environmental problems and also mentioned the council’s efforts to change a unused piece of land in front of the Malta Freeport into a recreational area.

Dr Sant said the MLP had the best team for the EP and local council elections on 12 June, adding that the EP election was not a vote in favour or against the EU as the PN was trying to convince people. A vote for the MLP candidates will ensure that Maltese families are not negatively affected by decisions taken by the EP.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Evarist Bartolo spoke about plans to introduce a number of taxes after the 12 June election.

He said this meant that the products that are now going down in price will go back up following the election as they will be taxed too.

Dr Bartolo criticised the PN for “its dishonesty” saying it had lied before the general election as it is doing now for the 12 June EP election.

He also said it was lying about Alternattiva Demokratika, recalling that AD was the PN’s ally before the election. He said if the PN was ready to do this to AD one could only imagine what it was prepared to say about the MLP.

Referring to research published by the EU, he said Malta had the highest rate of student drop outs while we had the lowest rate of graduates in the area of science and technology related subjects.

Dr Bartolo also said that half our 16-year-olds fail their English, Maltese and Maths exams, and some 75 per cent of youths registering for work do not have the necessary skills to join the workforce.

Dr Bartolo recalled that when the MLP used to mention these problems before the election it was accused of inflating matters.