One landslide after another

 

What else could I be referring to with this title, except the latest Maltese general election at the end of March, where the Partit Laburista (PL) again won government with a majority of 55.04% of votes, with the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) getting 42.12%, a difference of 39474 votes.

 

This is the third time in a row that the PL has run rings around the PN at the poll that counts (in 2017 the results were PL 54.83%, PN 43.34%, a difference of 35280 votes, and in 2013 PL 54.83%, PN 43.34%, a difference of 35107 votes).

 

This result to me was extraordinary for two reasons.  The first is about how stable is the percentage distribution of votes, over a decade.  This means that the PL seems to have found a formula that the Maltese people likes, a formula that from a high level view is seen as positive overall, notwithstanding defects taht were becoming visible and reverberating around the world over many months.

 

The second reason is that elections I remember from my time still on the island and therefore eligible to vote, the vote difference used to be much less.  To find a time when a party obtained more than a 52% share in first preference votes on has to go back to 1955 when the PL (then called the Malta Labour Party - MLP) had obtained 56.73%.

 

The two major parties had quite interesting manifestoes.  The PL had the advantage of being the incumbent, therefore its manifest semmed to be a bit more detailed and comprehensive, generally a logical continuation of its policies that it had already been following.

 

Amongst the many projects and policies that the PL proposed, and which one would now expect to be delivered, what stood out to me were public transport becoming free for Maltese citizens (415), a decision to halt the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2034 (425), the contraceptive and morning after pill becoming free (509), and incentive for enterprises to have at least 40% of its executive leadership being female (658) and a new general hospital for Gozo (733).1

 

The PN also had some good ideas in my opinion.  A fundamental one I really liked was the very first, to no longer measure a country’s wealth only by traditional economic indicators like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but by a swathe of other indicators that reflect the wellbeing of society and its communities.2  I had discussed this topic in edition 86 of The Voice of the Maltese.

 

Another PN proposal I liked was the addition to the educational curriculum of teaching about cultural diversity (521), intended to reduce suspicion and hatred towards immigrants from different cultures in Malta.

 

After the election result was clear, a process that did not take long at all, I immediately read some comments about the primary reason why the PN does not seem to be able to make inroads with the Maltese electorate being the lack of unity in the party.  It is a truism that disunity is death, and also that the party disunity is real and profound after the short and controversial leadership of Adrian Vella, but it seems to me that the difference between parties is more fundamental than this.

 

From my viewpoint, the origin of the difference between the parties came about when Joseph Muscat was elected leader of the PL, who was a generation younger than the head of the last tired Nationalist administration, Lawrence Gonzi.  There you had a young progressive against an elderly conservative.

 

As soon as he was given a chance in 2013, Muscat led a social progressive agenda that the PN initially was not prepared for, when Maltese society had long before started emerging from beneath its Catholic cloak.  Although at the end of the day the PN ended up voting in favour of divorce and today would not dare reverting the many reforms that were made, such as adoption by same sex couples, it is clear that there are many elements within the PN for whom these reforms will never ever be accepted, whose religio et patria heart is still beating as strong as ever.

 

Even today, for example, the PL manifesto has a whole section on LGBTIQ persons, whereas the PN equivalent only mentions them once directly.  People being part of that community will be very aware of who talks about that community with enthusiasm, and those who do so reluctantly.

 

The PL was also successful in the country’s economic management, with economic growth being for a while at the very top of European Union countries.  The PN did everything it could to take credit for this, with the slogan that the PL was building on solid foundations, however after 10 years in power, I think the PL must have been doing something right.

 

To tell you the truth, I think the PN knows this well, even if it does not acknowledge so explicitly.  Take one example which is often in the news, that of the Individual Investor Programme (IIP).  After all the insults about citizenship being for sale, a line that is still being made, the PN in fact did not propose to do away with the scheme, only to ensure that investments be active, ongoing and in some priority area of the country.

 

As a conclusion, it has to be said that this latest victory and continued faith of the people in the Labour leadership should not be taken to mean that the people is happy with the corruption web revealed within the highes echelons of the administration in recent years.  I believe that oppositions do not win elections, governments lose them when making egregious mistakes and think they are untouchable.  Although the Labour victory this year was as massive as previous ones, where was an unexpected reduction in the electorate’s participation, and this affected the PL almost as much as the PN.  

 

After car horns have stopped blaring and the champagne dried, this should serve as a warning.

 

1Malta Flimkien - Manifest Elettorali 2022; Partit Laburista

2Viżjoni Għal Malta 2030; Partit Nazzjonalista