Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called for a coalition of progressive forces from French President Emmanuel Macron to Greek PM Alexis Tsipras to ensure that a centre-left majority can be formed in the next European Parliament.

This comes after the latest EU projections showed that the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), which houses the Labour Party, is set to take a massive hit in the EP, losing 6% of their seats in May’s elections. On a local level, the PL is set to win four out of the six seats.

Speaking in an interview with Politico, Muscat took the opportunity to champion his version of a quasi-Blairite new labour model, advocating the embrace of capitalism to ensure socialism.

“Bringing about social justice is not fighting market forces, but trying to harness the market forces,” he explained.

“I think so much time is wasted in us saying … how we will distribute wealth when the first issue is how to create wealth. Voters want to know ‘where is the money coming from’.”

Muscat added that pure socialist doctrine only “works when you don’t [have to] make decisions. It doesn’t work when you are in government. And I’m not too sure that it works in order to take the government.”

The PM also called for a shift from the “classic comfort zone of social justice, of equality and all the rest,” stressing the importance to “attack in areas where we are not seen as credible enough, the creation of wealth, security, immigration.”

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Julian Bonnici

Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.