Muscat: Elections a choice between hope and fear

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat described the forthcoming European Parliament and local council elections as a “choice between hope and fear” during a political rally in Valletta marking Workers’ Day.Dr Muscat continued his attack on the Opposition’s “fearmongering” over immigration, urging voters to choose “inclusion” over “isolation”, while playing up the government’s advances in the social justice sphere over the last five years.“You cannot play the European while seeding fear and hate towards those who are not Maltese,” Dr Muscat said. “This is too similar to the language of the far-right. Our country has always been part of a broader family, but where we used to look outwards for opportunity, now others look to us.“This party brought this country freedom but it understands that freedom is not isolation.”

Taking the stage after speeches by deputy leader Chris Fearne and Frans Timmermans, the European Socialists’ candidate for the post of Commission president, Dr Muscat said the Labour Party remained focused on the three core principles of equality, social justice and social mobility.“We have taken a country with a deficit and turned it into a surplus, not through austerity but...