Labour leader Alfred Sant and a party delegation that accompanied him were given a thunderous welcome upon their arrival for a political event in Zurrieq yesterday evening.
The delegation arrived in the picturesque village centre on the MLP tour bus, which had just taken them to Safi, Kirkop, Mqabba and Qrendi as part of the party’s campaign trail.
As has become customary, Dr Sant delivered a short address to the crowd that gathered at each stop, but the party also organised a Mieghek fil-Misrah event in Zurrieq, where a large crowd of party faithful turned up to listen to, and support, the MLP’s message.
What was particularly striking was deputy Labour leader Charles Mangion’s reference to Monday’s four-way political discussion at university that turned into a rowdy affair, as support evidently swung mostly towards the PN.
Dr Mangion said the need for change was brought out even more following the university discussion, which he said was attended by only a few hundred of the thousands of students at university.
He said Dr Gonzi should have been responsible enough to stop what he referred to as “excessive enthusiasm” from Nationalist students.
Dr Sant’s speech was focused on the central theme that the party is using for its campaign this week – employment.
“We know what families want. Over the past years the country has become stagnant,” said Dr Sant, repeating the party’s cornerstone message that it wants to bring about change, particularly by generating employment opportunities and improving people’s quality of life.
“Every entity that has the potential to create jobs is valuable – factories, small and medium enterprises, all the self-employed... every job counts.”
There are many success stories, said Dr Sant, adding that the MLP plans to learn from them and create in order to create more. “Success brings about more success.”
“In order to be able to encourage companies to invest and generate more employment opportunities, we need to cut out the red tape and that is why we want to set up a one-stop-shop – to make sure that businesses are served in the most efficient way possible,” he said. “The country means business, we mean business,” he told the cheering crowd.
Speaking about the IT sector, Dr Sant said the country was not managing to train enough students in this area, and as a result it was not making the most of opportunities coming its way.
He said that, all in all, everything boiled down to bad governance and repeated the MLP’s pledge to work as a team in the best national interest.
“The prime minister has not assumed responsibility to control dishonesty, bribery and corruption, and things have only got worse.
“What we mean by change is change at every level, even in the way things are done,” he said.
In his concluding remarks, he said the MLP’s main aim was to generate more employment opportunities and added that it was only good leadership that would give the country a great future.