Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning dismissed the notion that a vote for Labour in the MEP election is a vote for abortion, saying that the Nationalist Party is in panic mode.

Opposition Leader Adrian Delia saw a panic button and he pressed it, Muscat said in reference to a speech by Delia on Sunday. Delia said that every seat for Labour in Brussels is a seat in favour of abortion.

Questioned this morning, Muscat said that the PN always brings up the subject of abortion each time it has its back to the wall. This short-term strategy will not work, he said.

Delia’s statement, Muscat said, strengthened his (Muscat’s) position that the election on 25 May is between the two leaders. “I am focused on the real issues,” Muscat said.

Asked whether he condemns the way PL MEPs voted in favour of abortion 16 times, Muscat said: "let us not say stupid things. The truth is that we are ridiculing such a serious and important subject."

"You cannot vote against a report on poverty in the third world due to a paragraph which you would have voted differently on. I know exactly how things in the EU Parliament work."

"We are ridiculing a very important subject that the people deserve to discuss it in a serious manner without making stereotypes. The government has no mandate to introduce abortion."

"It is irresponsible for the PN Leader to, as a survival strategy in the last days of the electoral campaign, to make declarations that will come back to haunt him."