‘Malta Qabel Kollox’ – Malta before everything - will be Cyrus Engerer’s slogan for the upcoming European Parliament elections, clearly inspired from the famous slogan ‘Malta L-Ewwel Qabel Kollox’  - Malta first before everything - uttered by the Labour Party’s historical cult figure Dom Mintoff.

Braving the weather and speaking in a press conference on Monday morning to launch his 130-day electoral campaign, Engerer said that this was a slogan born out of the belief that the absolute majority of all Maltese and Gozitan people, irrespective of political colour, wanted politicians who put Malta before everything else.

Engerer spoke of the government’s many achievements in the past six years, citing the financial surplus, high rates of employments, civil rights advances and funding of research and innovation.  This has all happened because the government and the Labour party have a united team which always pull the same rope – one which puts Malta before everything, Engerer added.

The MEP candidate took aim at the Opposition’s current MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa for, he said, using the European Parliament to spread lies about the country with the aim of slandering the name of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the name of the country as a whole.

Engerer spoke at length about his achievements and work within the European sphere of politics over the past year, speaking namely about his co-ordination of the work required for the European Presidency in Malta.  In this period, 340 formal meetings had been held along with countless other informal meetings on various sectors and subjects.

Concluding, Engerer took one final swipe at Casa and Metsola, saying that it was clear from that start the Opposition had no problem in attacking the country and that he had seen the aforementioned MEPs rise from their chairs to “attack the country” on a daily basis.  However, he said, such attacks only serve to motivate people like him further and to serve the country and its interests with “love and conviction”.