Flimkien (together) has become the Nationalist Party's pet word. It featured as the central component of the March 2008 general election slogan Flimkien Kollox Posssibli (Together everything is possible), and was the first word of last November’s budget speech.

The word was reincarnated once again yesterday when the PN unveiled its slogan for the 6 June European parliament elections: Flimkien ingibu izjed xoghol ghalik (Together we will get more work for you).

Speaking yesterday, Prime Minister and PN leader Lawrence Gonzi acknowledged this was not the first time the PN has invited all Malta and Gozo to work together, but the setting today is very different to that of last year's general elections. The world, he said, has changed dramatically since the general election.

“Last year the world economy was growing strongly and Malta was part of that growth, and adopted the euro to improve the country’s competitive position,” he commented. “Today, however, the world has changed dramatically and Malta simply cannot afford to ignore the storm out there.”

While the country’s position was in relatively good shape thanks to Malta’s EU and eurozone memberships, Dr Gonzi added, “Now more than ever we need to work together – to pull the national rope in the national interest.”

The idea, he added, was to build on job creation, which had amounted to some 7,000 jobs between 2007 and 2008, in the private sector.

“With the world as it is, at the end of the day, what we need is a national effort to attract more investment and work to Malta, and now more than ever is not the time for populist and easy solutions to the challenges the country is facing,” Dr Gonzi stressed.

“Now is the time to take the decisions that need to be taken. The world will emerge from the current crisis and we need to ensure that Malta itself emerges stronger than ever before.”

The slogan, he said, was more than a mere phrase and rather encapsulated PN MEPs last five years’ work at the European Parliament, work that he said would continue in good stead by PN MEPs over the new legislature.”

The result of the 6 June election, he said, could be very negative or very positive and the electorate needed to determine who was best cut out to represent Malta for the next five years.

Yesterday’s event was also addressed by PN secretary general Paul Borg Olivier and Head of the PN delegation to the EP MEP Simon Busuttil.