It was amazing that instead of addressing the hurts the people were feeling, the Nationalist Party and its leader felt that the general council should speak about one vision – that altogether they would personally attack and insult the office and person of Opposition Leader Alfred Sant, the Labour Party said.

It was referring to the general council meeting the PN held at the weekend, on what should have been the vision for 2015, the MLP said. In those three days PN delegates had all the opportunities to address the hurts the people were feeling, such as the rising cost of living and the tax burden, incompetence and corruption.

Instead, the MLP said, the council resorted to cheap name calling against the Opposition Leader.

It was shameful that today, Malta had a Prime Minister who not only supported this new style of politics but who reciprocated the name calling by applauding the insults thrown, the MLP said.

Among the lowest name calling which stood out was that by Minister Austin Gatt, who made “personal insults” against the Labour leader. These insults were apart from others which Dr Gatt had in the last months become known for, the MLP added.

Labour supporters were described by him as “inkallati” (very dirty), he had called Dr Sant an imbecile, threatened a One News cameraman with arrest, had declared himself ready to bet on how many factories would close down, and described the PN as a whale which would swallow the Labour leader, whom he described as the head of manhole covers.

If the Prime Minister wanted to regain some credibility in the country, he should unreservedly condemn the weekend criticism Dr Gatt made, as it itself was doing, the MLP added.

The MLP said it was proud it had a leader who was honest, had integrity and was serious, having no stain of corruption.

In a separate statement, the MLP parliamentary group also condemned the statement made by Dr Gatt.