Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi tonight declared that his fate lies in the hands of the electorate.

Asked about his declaration that he will not resign as PN leader if the election is lost, Dr Gonzi said that he "was never one to give up in the face of defeat. The tenability of my position depends on whether I have the confidence of the party councillors and the electorate as a whole. A defeatist attitude is not the way forward.”

Dr Gonzi, speaking on Bondiplus, refused to be downbeat when asked about the current polls, which show Labour in the lead just 10 days before the election is held.

“I am confident. There is a sector of the electorate that is still undecided. Everyone is at liberty to make the choice. It is a serious decision that should not be weighed up in five minutes, but made within the context of the next five years,” Dr Gonzi warned.

Dr Gonzi said that Dr Muscat’s covering up of drug trafficking should not be dismissed lightly.

“This is one of the most serious cases imaginable. The head of the Labour Party knew about drug trafficking and took no action. This is a very serious matter even for an ordinary person, let alone for someone wanting to become our prime minister,” Dr Gonzi said.

He added that this was the ultimate hypocrisy from the Labour Party, especially after their harping on about “political responsibility.”

The oil scandal naturally came up in the discussion. Dr Gonzi denied having any knowledge of wrongdoing by Tancred Tabone, Enemalta’s former chairperson.  He said that chairpersons of public entities should be changed periodically, and Tabone’s removal was just done as a matter of course.

When questioned by presenter Lou Bondi on the PN’s track record in fighting corruption, Dr Gonzi replied that the government has always forwarded any information of wrongdoing to the relevant authorities.

Dr Gonzi explained that the granting of the presidential pardon to oil trade George Farrugia was not done unilaterally.  

“The Police Commissioner informed me that there was someone willing to talk if he was granted a pardon. I consulted the attorney general and he expressed his belief that the person involved would reveal more about the case if granted the pardon,” Dr Gonzi said.

In granting the pardon and taking action, Dr Gonzi delineated the difference between himself and opposition leader Joseph Muscat.

“The government’s responsibility is in catching these people and taking action. I did not hide the fact the there was wrongdoing. This stands in contrast to Joseph Muscat and Toni Abela, who hid drug trafficking from the police in order not to place someone from a Labour club in an awkward position,” Dr Gonzi emphasised.

Gonzi highlighted this and a litany of other “mistakes” made by Dr Muscat from the benevolent comfort of the opposition benches. He fired off a list of these “mistakes,” chief among which being Dr Muscat’s advice for Malta to follow the Cypriot model and his resistance to closing down the loss making shipbuilding entity.

“I could not believe that Muscat said that he didn’t want to close down the drydocks. We managed to close a loss making entity. Muscat is consistently wrong, on the EU, on the euro and more,” Gonzi declared.

He said he was delighted about the government’s own achievement in securing €1.1 billion in EU funding.

“Muscat cannot even begin to comprehend how tough the negotiations involved were. Huge countries like Germany wanted cuts, but we as Malta had to go there and say that we wanted more money,” Gonzi said.

When asked for his thoughts on Dr Muscat’s new “cool” image among youngsters, Dr Gonzi expressed his belief that young people will take a more pragmatic tact when deciding who to vote for.

“This is not a question of cool. The bottom line that young people have to look at is whether they have a job. The PN provided work for the majority of youngsters graduating over the past five years.”

Dr Gonzi said that he was not surprised that Labour’s campaign has been build around its leader, reasoning that the “head of the party is a personification its political values.”

He dismissed the frosty reception received at the University and MCAST debates as being part of the folly of youth, saying that it is testament to the progress achieved by the PN that such events can be held without the threat of violence.