The general elections of October 1996 returned a clear verdict over choices facing the people of Malta and Gozo regarding their future. This verdict strengthens my Government's determination to provide a modern leadership style for our country, a leadership which supplies action guidelines best suited for the reality of our circumstances. These will be action guidelines based on the individual as the core of all activity and on those values which promote unity among our people. The people of Malta and Gozo have shown that they believe most strongly that society should not be made up of first and second class citizens.
Market values are essential in so far as they ensure efficiency.
United and forward-looking, we should be able to understand the symbols of what makes us a nation worthy of its freedom. Today my Government reiterates its highest aspiration that of being truly a government for all the people of Malta and Gozo. Faced by technological progress, the ever-strengthening ties between nations and social groups, faced by global developments in trade and by the rapid rhythm of social and cultural changes taking place around us, driven onwards by the social means of communication and by the Information Revolution, every society needs to renew continually its way of life and the way it makes a living. Every society must face these contemporary challenges by implementing all the necessary changes. Each society needs to ensure a better standard of living for its citizens in a way which will strengthen its identity.