Former prime minister Joseph Muscat was given an enthusiastic welcome by supporters attending an event by Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba, but has again kept them guessing as to whether he will contest the 8 June MEP election.

Saturday’s event in Valletta was the first time since his disgraced exit that Muscat was addressing a crowd of supporters. He resigned in January 2020 in the aftermath of arrests in connection with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

He encouraged voters to turn up at the election, but did not say what his intentions are. Instead, he dedicated much of his time on the podium to speak about his accusers as he faces the pressure of a magisterial inquiry into the hospitals deal which had seen three public hospitals passed on to the private sector until the agreement was rescinded by a court last year.

“Those who accused me falsely in the past were proven wrong, yet no action was taken against their lies,” he said. “Instead, millions are being spent in finding something to accuse me with: the accusation is that I pursued a private career after politics. Those who use their political clout to push business to their children’s firms are never investigated. But I tell them: I have nothing to hide, you can search me all you like.”

Referring to the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, who is charged with being a mastermind in the Caruana Galizia assassination, Muscat said that for the first time there had been an arrest of someone in a high-profile murder. “For the first time in the modern history of Malta, the State had arrested the alleged perpetrators of a high-profile murder. And yet it is who failed to arrest the killers of Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana who must account for their actions.”

He defended his reasoning for his own resignation. “I could have taken our people out on the streets to protest... then they would have truly seen what a protest was,” he said. “I could have called an election there and then, and we would have won it. But I am proud of having acted responsibly, as someone who put his love for his country and the party before anything else.”

He said his adversaries wanted to see him behind bars. “We’re the party whose leaders were once decreed as going to hell. Am I going to fear going to jail?” Muscat said.

Labour is the party of Manuel Dimech, who died while exiled, of Alfred Sant, who was depicted as some kind of devil, of Dom Mintoff, whom they wanted to crucify, he said. “We must keep showing that we are a united movement.”

“There is a minority of people in this country who are trying to provoke us with hate, and our response should be showing the hand of friendship. Sure, they don’t take our hand in friendship, but then hug those who have murdered thousands of children... you know who I am referring to, Roberta Busuttil” – the set-up cued in his next target, former PN leader Simon Busuttil. “Oh, at least I didn’t call her Simon Metsola.”

“We’ll keeping showing them the hand of friendship, because they must learn that until they stop sowing hatred, the electorate will never trust them... we must look forward to another 10 years of a Labour government, which wants to make this country more modern, a laboratory of new technologies, that gives women the right to make decisions about their own bodies... we can’t stop progress.”

He had started his speech speaking of his achievements - civil rights, free childcare, jobs and tourism growth, roads construction, pensions, no-tax budgets.

“I’m the first to say that we could have done some things better, but in many other things we did the best we could for Maltese families and businesses,” Muscat said.

He said he had been labelled as being corrupt, boasting that he had left Malta’s treasury overflowing with money. “And what shall we call those who emptied the till? Can you imagine had a PN government been in power during COVID: from where would the government have got the money to pay workers to stay at home for an entire year?”