At a public meeting held in front of the Law Courts in Valletta, Azzjoni Nazzjonali leader Josie Muscat said the coming election is a choice between “more of the same” and change.

Will the future mean more and more taxes, he asked, considering the Maltese people are the most heavily taxed people in the EU? Or more people out of work, as the Dockyard will no longer be able to obtain government subsidies? Will this mean 1800 more among the jobless or will they be spread out among the local councils while the dockyard continues to bring in Bulgarians and Poles to do its work?

Will a “more of the same” future mean more deaths from drugs overdose? Or more separations? Or, despite spending more money on building schools, seeing our educational system classed as the worst in Europe?

Azzjoni Nazzjonali promises young couples to guarantee the first Lm10,000 they borrow from banks, and to offer the owners of the 50,000 uninhabited residences reduced tax levels so that they can rent their properties.

Angelo Xuereb, deputy leader, said 11,000 people have been certified as being too sick to work and he asked whether we had become a nation of sick people. While in Malta there are 9,000 people who are living off those who pay their taxes, in Gozo, which has a population of around one village in Malta, there are no less than 2,000.

Looking around him, Mr Xuereb saw signs of neglect in Valletta, starting from the decrepit bus terminus and the disaster that is City Gate, to Europe’s last war-damaged building.