The Malta Labour Party is facing its biggest challenge of recent years, MLP leader Joseph Muscat told delegates assembled last night for the opening of a weeklong extraordinary general conference aimed at enacting fundamental changes to the party’s statute.

The party’s executive has proposed a raft of changes to the party’s statute, proposals delegates will vote upon on Friday and Sunday following a week of workshops that will thrash out the proposals in detail.

“The new problems in Maltese society means we need to offer new solutions,” Dr Muscat told delegates last night, “and the challenge is to make the party more relevant to today’s needs and to give people faith that there is another direction for the country.”

Amongst the changes aimed at overhauling the party’s workings are those aimed at creating a National Congress that would be empowered, instead of the current delegate system, with choosing the party’s leader and electoral programme. Eligibility for the congress would be a five-year running party membership.

Other changes include measures aimed at drawing more women and youths to the party’s structures, lowering the party’s membership age threshold to 16, dissolving the Brigata Laburista and the party’s Vigilance and Disciplinary Board, as well as cosmetic changes such as changing the party’s name to Partit Laburista and revamping its emblem.

“A lot of changes are being proposed, but what will not change is the party’s founding principle of social justice, which is still the party’s foundation to this day.

“Today marks the beginning of a process through which the party will create a movement, a movement without social borders for all those who believe in being progressive and in social democracy,” Dr Muscat said when taking the floor following addresses by Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Karmenu Vella and Louis Grech.

Referring to the more cosmetic changes being proposed, Dr Muscat remarked, “We are known as the Partit Laburista, and that is what we should be called.”

On the prospective reworking of the party’s emblem, Dr Muscat remarked how the torch would continue to serve as a component. Referring to MLP founder Paul Boffa’s description of the torch in 1933 as symbolising “progress, light, intellect and love”, Dr Muscat stressed the values were those that the party still stood for today.

The party, he said, was not a party for the few but rather a party for the masses, which were not there merely to attend mass meetings but instead to be heard, be given a role and to lead.

Dr Muscat appealed to delegates for courage in the days ahead. The party, he said, could not continue to be a closed shop but must instead open itself up and be an integral part of society.

Over the coming days delegates will separate into four workshops to discuss the details of the various proposals under evaluation.

The extraordinary general conference will reconvene on Friday, when delegates will vote on the conclusions of three of the workshops, and once again on Sunday when a vote on the fourth workshop will be taken.