The election campaign is now well and truly underway, as both the European Parliament elections and the local council elections approach. 

This means that we will start to see more and more political candidates do what they can to get attention over their competitors from both their opponents and those contesting on their own side of the ballot sheet.

Banners, events, endorsements, social media slogans, sponsored adverts will no doubt litter people’s newsfeeds and general lives from now until 8 June.

It is pertinent that – particularly within the context of the European Parliament elections – one understands what exactly a candidate can and cannot achieve as an MEP if they are to be elected.

For example, one PN MEP candidate launched his four pledges for the elections: “the right to affordable housing”, “making the metro dream a reality”, “quality jobs driven by innovation” and “smart and aesthetic construction.”

How exactly any of these four points can be achieved by this particular candidate if he were to be elected to the European Parliament remains a mystery. 

This is because all of them are purely national issues: no MEP is going to have the power to institute regulations for buildings which look nice, or for building a metro, or for creating quality jobs – not even if their party is the one in power.

Likewise, another PL MEP candidate pledges to provide “banking that meets your needs” – an issue which is far more of a local issue than an issue which can be tackled at European level, although there are some things which – admittedly – can be done on a European level in this regard.

Another example traces back to the 2019 MEP election when the Nationalist Party made it one of their chief electoral strategies to use abortion as the big anti-Labour bogey-man, insisting that the Labour Party wanted to pressure the European Union to force Malta to introduce abortion into the country.

Fast forward to the present day when the European Parliament did urge Malta to decriminalise abortion, it was the PN itself which said that this was a matter of national competence and not something which Europe could dictate – thereby disproving the cornerstone of their own 2019 campaign,

The fact of the matter is that candidates and political parties will say all kinds of things and make all kinds of claims and proposals.  That’s just the nature of politics. This is more the case in an election such as the one which is upcoming when what an MEP actually does is a lot more vague and a lot less visible on the ground in Malta. 

This sometimes gives some the opportunity to try and use some creative licence to promise things they cannot achieve. This is why voter education, particularly about institutions such as the European Parliament which sometimes seem detached from those we are used to in Malta and about the job that an MEP does over there, is so important.

It’s up to the media, but more so to the voter to hold candidates to account and call them out when what they say just isn’t feasible.  And it would also be nice for candidates themselves to be honest and promise things that they can actually deliver.