Prime Minister Robert Abela this evening presented what he said were the Labour Party’s first five proposals it pledges to carry out if elected to govern the country again.

In a press conference given hours after he announced that the election will be held on 26 March, Abela said that what the PL was presenting today in the first say of the campaign would cost €1.3 billion over five years (€271 million each year).

The first proposal is one related to the environment, he said, with a PL government promising to spend €700 million on green spaces.

We want to see village cores become greener, he said, so that one does not need to use a car to find open spaces where to take a walk. The plan is to have more underground parking areas and pedestrian zones.

There will be areas which will be open to traffic during the week but only open to pedestrians during the weekend, he said.

The second proposal is that families will have more money to spend via the widening of the tax bands and tax refunds. This will leave an average of €300 in every pocket, a plan that will amount to €90 million.

Abela also announced that businesses will also be benefitting under a Labour government, with the corporate tax rate to be reduced from 35% to 25%.

He said that the government has been instrumental for businesses to survive during the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming that its intervention has saved 100,000 jobs.

Elderly people, he said, will also be taken care of by a Labour government. In the next term, elderly people will be getting €15 a week over and above a cost of living mechanism which will be revised to make it fairer. This will cost €240 million.

Over the legislature, elderly people will each be getting €2,340, he said.

Abela added that a PL government will be giving young couples buying their first home €1,000 each year for the first 10 years of their purchasing their property.

This will enable them to fulfil their dream of moving out of their parents' homes and set up their own families in their own household.

More details regarding these proposals will be given in the coming days, he said.

The PL leader said that this is an ambitious plan, one which will benefit many sectors.

He explained how these proposals shall be discussed until next Spring, with their subsequent implementation set for the beginning of summer. 

“We can guarantee that what we have promised, will happen” Abela said.