Prime Minister Robert Abela issued a rallying cry on Sunday as he called on supporters to attend the Labour Party’s Workers’ Day celebrations which he announced will take place on 1 May in Valletta.

Speaking in Valletta itself, Abela told supporters: “We don’t bang pots and pans, but we come before you and speak about how we will improve your lives, your children’s lives, and workers’ lives.”

“So while others gathered there” – as he pointed in the general direction of Parliament, the venue of a Repubblika-led protest last week – “and banged on pots and pans, we will gather here to celebrate the country’s successes,” Abela said.

It was indeed a political activity where during his 25-minute speech Abela rattled off the various achievements of the Labour Party’s administration, with a special focus placed on the economic ones.

He first commented on the “revolution” that the PL administration had brought to Valletta as Malta’s capital city since 2013, and then moved onto speaking about the “stagnant labour market” that the PL government had inherited from the Nationalist administration in 2013.

“Today we speak about not having enough workers; back then there were seven workers registering as unemployed for every new vacancy that was being created.  Today it’s the other way around,” he said.

He said that the economy was setting historic records for the wrong reasons: a 70% debt-to-GDP ratio which the EU warned that Malta could not have.

“We found a situation where it didn’t make sense for you to work; where it made more sense to be on benefits than to work on minimum wage and be taxed,” he continued.

He said that the government then introduced tapering of social benefits, free childcare so more parents could work, and saw the country’s productivity increase and its economy start running forward: “We have people the dignity of work,” he said.

“Some days ago we celebrated Freedom Day – 46 years since Dom Mintoff gave this country economic freedom so we could run towards social freedom – and now in Valletta in some days’ time we will celebrate Workers’ Day,” he added.

He said that Malta’s economic growth is six times higher than the EU average, primarily because “despite pandemics, wars, logistics, and inflation this government decided to support and trust the people.”

He said that the people had answered, that Foreign Direct Investment had increased and now the country can look forward “to a future filled with optimism.”

Abela continued that doubling the country’s economy means that every October – during the Budget – there is more to distribute, and pledged that pensions will again increase come next year.

He ran through several other governmental achievements, ranging from the economic ones from past Budgets, to the purchase of band clubs to protect Maltese feasts, to IVF reforms, to the creation of the carer’s grant to help parents who have children with a disability, and to the government’s equity sharing scheme which has recently expanded to include people who are 25 years old and over.

He said that the government had given peace of mind even when it came to the energy sector.  “When energy prices exploded, we promised and we delivered; and we will keep promising that fuel, gas, water and electricity prices will remain stable for everyone – so we can give stability and peace of mind to all families,” he said.

“This is where we want to use our money – not on weapons, bombs, tanks, and instruments of destruction,” Abela said, referencing recent criticism towards the PN for – he has alleged – its desire to shift government funding into the purchase of armaments.

“Others invest in bombs, we invest in you: in families, parents, pensioners, children, in those with disabilities because that’s what you do when your heart beats in the right place,” he said.