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maltatoday, TUESDAY, 30 MAY 2017 5 News THIS IS A PAID ADVERT Rally for pensioners Tony Zarb warns 'of suffering under PN' PAUL COCKS TONY Zarb, former secretary general of the General Work- ers' Union, came out of re- tirement yesterday to give an impassioned endorsement of prime minister Joseph Mus- cat, during a rally for elderly persons and pensioners at City Theatre in Valletta. He said that Muscat alone had the country's best interests at heart and encouraged Labour supporters to vote in Saturday's election to ensure the prime minister could build on the great success he had achieved in the past four years. Zarb criticised opposition leader Simon Busuttil for de- basing Malta's image in Europe and beyond and now claiming he would travel around the world to clear Malta's reputa- tion in the wake of allegations of corruption and money laun- dering against Muscat's gov- ernment. "Now you want to try and ap- pear like you care for Malta's reputation, after all the harm you have caused our country?" he said, in reference to Busuttil. Zarb also addressed unde- cided voters who might have been hurt by the Labour gov- ernment. "Imagine how much worse you will suffer if the Nation- alist Party won the election. I know that under a new Labour government, your hurt will be gone," he said. "After all, Simon Busuttil has already stated he intends to lead a 'Labour-proof ' govern- ment." Zarb said that when recently he underwent some medical tests, his major worry was not being able to vote at the elec- tion. Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat appealed to all Labour Par- ty supporters to go and vote as early as possible this Saturday so that they would then be able to help party representatives convince more people to go and vote. Muscat also urged support- ers to help him convince unde- cided voters to vote Labour and to ensure that all their family members had received or col- lected their voting document. He said that if they were to ask anyone if their family was better off today than four years ago, everyone would agree that they were. "Indeed, everyone would agree that the country as a whole was far better off today than four years ago," he said. Muscat said that the coun- try had never seen economic growth and stability like that registered in the past four years under his administration, nor had anyone believed unem- ployment could be so low with so many new jobs created. "We have also done a lot for you, elderly persons and pen- sioners of our country, because no one deserves it more than you," he said. "But we did not stop there, and we are now pro- posing even more measures for the upcoming legislature." Muscat reiterated the party's pledge to increase pensions by €8 a week, over the next four years, in line with the recently- agreed upon increase in the minimum wage. Labour had also promised to give the full cost of living bo- nus to all those who became pensioners after 2008 and to gradually give a full pension to all widows and widowers once they reached the age of retire- ment. He also noted that pension- ers under 65 years of age who remained self-employed would have the rate of their social se- curity contributions reduced to one based pro rata instead of a full flat rate. "And just as we reduced hos- pital waiting lists, we will also work to reduce the waiting lists for entry into old people's homes," Muscat said. The Labour leader reminded everyone that the outcome of Saturday's election would de- termine if the country would continue to enjoy the success it had in the past four years. "Help me to ensure that our movement regains the trust of the people, help convince eve- ryone to go and vote on Satur- day, so that we can show eve- ryone that our country's best days are yet to come," Muscat said. "Like steel forged in fire be- comes stronger the hotter the fire is, so our movement has become stronger over the past few years." We can offer the stability to see the country continue to make a surplus - Muscat CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 "You need to include these people also. It is shocking for someone to want to run the country's finances and to make mistakes like these," he added. Turning to "issues of debt", Muscat said the government could not be criticised over its economic performance. He stressed that debt was going down, without negatively impacting government finances and warned that a PN government would threaten this performance. "If they enact what they are saying they will, we will have a 14% deficit," Muscat said. "They will either increase VAT to 20%, in- crease social security or increase bills." Ultimately, Muscat said, the point was the country would need to decide who it trusted to guide the economy. "The Opposition is not prepared to run the country. It will endanger work places," he said, adding that instead of a concrete and costed plan, the PN had put forward a hotch- potch of counterproductive plans that were rooted in very little sense. "We can offer the stability that will see the country continue to make a surplus," Muscat said. Scicluna said that aside from numbers, faith was at the core of economics. Likening the PN's proposals to a business plan drawn up in a hurry, Scicluna said that no bank manager would think of giving PN leader Simon Busuttil a loan on the basis of his 'business plan' for the country. On the contrary, Scicluna said the PL had proposed a costed plan that was in line with the coming budget, which he said would be predicting a surplus while also allowing for the various proposals. He said that with the PL's proposals the economy was expected to maintain a 6% growth. On the other hand, Scicluna said that the cost of many of the PN's proposals had been downplayed, and were in fact much greater. The minister pointed out that the propos- als did not make sense when one considers the fact that the PN was proposing a consti- tutional requirement for the country to have a balanced budget. He insisted that the plan would either see Malta enter an excessive deficit procedure, result in additional taxes, or would not be enacted at all. According to Scicluna, with Busuttil being the author of at least two PN manifestos, it wouldn't be the first time that some propos- als weren't implemented. "In 2008, they promised a surplus in two years," Scicluna said. "They also promised a reduction in waiting lists through agree- ments with the private sector." Both, he said, had not been enacted, in the same way that succession tax was not removed and the promised income tax re- duction from 35% to 25% was not done, he added. Scicluna said Busuttil wanted to gamble with families' and businesses' future. Gavin Gulia said that the biggest piece of evidence indicating a lack of well-thought out ideas had been given to the elector- ate when Busuttil said it wasn't an election based on proposals. "You can't present yourself as an alternative government and also say that proposals are secondary and don't deserve centre stage," he said. The minister pointed out that the proposals did not make sense when one considers the fact that the PN was proposing a constitutional requirement for the country to have a balanced budget. He insisted that the plan would either see Malta enter an excessive deficit procedure, result in additional taxes, or would not be enacted at all