Alfred Sant lashed out at the government about price rises, saying that after the price explosion of the last few months, the government was boasting it had concluded an agreement with some importers to keep prices in check up to March.

It was obvious, the Labour leader said at a social activity, that as far as prices were concerned the government was interested only in what happened up to the time an election was held. It could not care less about what would happen later.

It was true that some prices, such as of oil, cereals and milk were costing more abroad, so Maltese families were expecting prices here to rise as they did abroad, but not by more. But in September and October the prices of food and health-related products had risen by three or four times more than they did in the EU.

Dr Sant said that every time the Labour Party showed how the cost of living could be restrained, the government remained supine because, it argued, prices were rising abroad and the government could not do anything. He wondered who was lining his pockets from this.

More and more families were finding it impossible to keep up with the cost of living, Dr Sant said. That was why, he added, one of the first measures Labour in government would introduce would be to cut the power surcharge by half, releasing to families the money they needed against inflation.

The Nationalists, the Labour leader said, were asking where Labour in government would be finding the money to do this, when they themselves had overshot the planned expenditure on various projects by Lm191 million. The first section only of the road which from Victoria led to San Lawrenz had cost Lm1 million more than planned.

Dr Sant also referred to Manwel Dimech bridge. The architects who were supervising the works were the same people who, under a different name, ran another company with Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett who had the responsibility for the bridge. The bridge rebuilding had to be concluded by September but to date only half of it had been finished and now no one knew exactly when works would be concluded, with the government referring to March, and the contractor to May.

The Labour leader said that what this would translate into was higher fees for the architects and the contractor. “It is not for nothing the whole thing reeks of corruption,” Dr Sant said. The pretext they had come up with now was that the bridge concrete had been found to be harder than thought.

The Labour Party wanted to give a new beginning to Gozo as well. Jobs would be created for Gozitans in Gozo, which should have its fair share of the 1.6 million tourists who would visit the country. Gozo needed hotels and yacht marinas, information technology factories, the best schools and the best hospital which would also be state of the art. And what Labour promised, Labour would deliver, he said.