The campaign entered its second day, with the Labour Party giving more information about its pledges while the Nationalist Party kept on punding Labour about its mistake which led to the early election. There was also the first appearance of both leaders on national television.
Labour Party
Joseph Muscat continues to harp on the positive aspects of his four-year government, saying that now that some objectives have been achieved, such as the budget surplus, Malta could move on to the next step.
His press conference on the second day of the campaign dealt with a more detailed explanation on the measures announced the day before with regard to tax cuts and increase in pensions, insisting that they will be sustainable. After the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, it was the MHRA’s turn on Wednesday to warn against populist ideas.
Giving an extra 200 euros in tax breaks will go a long way to please the lower classes of society, but they whether this extra money will sway the more affluent floating voters towards Labour is another matter. That the common people will be getting just 200 euros a year when, say, Sai Mizzi got €13,000 a month does not work well for Muscat.
In the evening, in Rabat, Joseph Muscat announced that there will be five more proposals next week. He did not say in which sector. The PN is replying to these proposals saying that Muscat cannot pledge meritocracy, transparency and a fight against corruption, because he failed miserably in the last four years.
Nationalist Party
Simon Busuttil did not make an appearance in the morning, and it was deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami who addressed the media. Once again, the focus was on the negative side of this government, with a huge focus on the interview given by the Russian whistle-blower to The Malta Independent.
But there were no proposals yet from the PN side, and many are being led to think that the PN has been caught off guard by the early election announcement. Perhaps they are still compiling a list of measures to counter those being proposed by Labour.
Giving time to new candidates to express themselves is, on paper, a commendable idea considering the PN wants to distance itself from the recent past as much as possible. But doing so at the height of an election campaign is not ideal. With Labour’s press conference appearing slick, smooth and professional, the PN’s press events leave so much to be desired. Some say that it’s the substance that counts, but the presentation matters too.
In the evening, the PN was the first to hold an activity in Gozo, a district that was always won by the PN until the last election, which turned Labour. And, finally, we heard the PN propose something – a €10,000 financial incentive for new couples to stay in Gozo. But the full programme for Gozo is still being worked out, he said.
Dissett
The two leaders were interviewed on Dissett by Reno Bugeja. It was not a head to head programme, as they were in the studio separately. We look forward to their face to face confrontation, or confrontations.
Joseph Muscat would not say whether Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri will form part of the team if he won the election. That says a lot. He does not want to confirm his two closest aides, who have been the major consequence of the political crisis he is facing, but it is hard to imagine that he will discard them once the election is over. They know too much. But his statement was cleverly placed as it could lead the more gullible to understand that he might put them aside.
Simon Busuttil said he will contest the 11th and 12th district, avoiding his hometown Birkirkara. His confidence that he can win the election comes from the fact that the circumstances of the last few weeks have been in his favour, but deep down he knows that he has a mountain to climb. He has become sharper on TV, but is not as confident as Muscat in front of the cameras.