The political establishment in Malta will no doubt sit up and take notice of the findings emerging from the latest Eurobarometer survey.

This survey indicates a drastic decline in the level of support for the ruling administration, with a mere 38 per cent of respondents participating in the survey declaring that they have faith in the government. This represents a substantial shift from the 51 per cent support registered in a similar survey held last autumn.

This is the lowest level of support recorded in the last five years.

The latest survey report suggests that the massive surcharge imposed on water and electricity bills is likely to have been a decisive factor contributing to the drop in government support.

There is no doubt that the electorate is anguished by crushing taxation. Having been set back, electors feel the pinch as consumers. But they are equally concerned by the disappointing performance of the economy.

Missed targets

After so many reassurances by top government spokesmen that “the economy is on track”, it now emerges that Malta is the only EU member state to register a drop in tourism in 2005 and since – and this at a time when Malta’s direct competitors in the EU experienced positive trends.

The tourist sector is Malta’s prime source of foreign earnings which, incidentally, permeates with a multiplying effect, across a wide spectrum of the island economy.

The government’s failure to achieve its own declared targets in this sector must have reinforced public perceptions about official incompetence – political and bureaucratic.

Add to this public resentment arising from political arrogance, and you have the recipe for the electoral indigestion certified by the Eurobarometer investigators.

The Eurobarometer measurements are significant insofar as they carry an independent European stamp

Corroborating local opinion

Local opinion surveys had been saying very much the same.

The Sunday Times led with a front-page story, as recently as 11 June, about its own survey, which established that “only 8.7 per cent of the Maltese said they were satisfied with the government’s performance at present”. It added that “as many as 80.3 per cent said they were not satisfied, while the remaining 11 per cent did not commit themselves.”

Another local opinion survey, this time by Maltatoday and published one month later (16 July), declared “Labour to be in clear lead over the PN as civil society lashes government.”

Maltatoday announced this result with the observation that “During a month marked by vocal criticism from civil society on the government’s performance in the environmental and tourism sectors, the Malta Labour Party widens its narrow 1.5 per cent lead in June to a more satisfactory 6.2 per cent this month, safely beyond the Maltatoday survey’s margin of error.”

This makes depressing news for the government. The main body of Maltese citizens without affiliation to any political party, that aspires to forward movement, is clearly taking new bearings.

Progressive opinion hankers for positive, dynamic governance, and pines for solutions to extricate Malta from the prevailing malaise.

The prevailing environment is suffocating. The government is not open to the process of democratic consultation. It has a propensity to procrastinate, fend off criticism, and subsequently to impose its will unilaterally. It operates more at the behest of its faceless “strategists”, than in the interest of its electoral base. Its lack of transparency has been at the root of internal resentment, and the factor that motivated so many NGOs representing civil society to protest openly in the streets.

There have been too many instances where the media focused on stories involving corruption, real or perceived.

Notwithstanding all this, the government ignored public sentiment, as well as entreaties from its own ranks, to introduce new blood

Its tired team cannot take the mounting pressure of public opinion. They are increasingly restless as the crescendo of public criticism becomes more voluminous. Some ministers are beginning to lose their cool run away from the press. Worse still, some of them betray their panic by demonstrations of hostility.

The last word

With the next general election looming larger and larger on the political horizon, it appears that the government has reached the point of no return.

Has it got time to avoid a collision course with the disenchanted electorate?

Is the electorate in the mood to think again? Could it be bribed by clever strategists?

Or will the wind of change continue to blow until it reaches hurricane force at the general elections?

Newspaper columnists may speculate and hazard their answers. Politicians of all stripes will, no doubt, parade their certainties with unerring conviction.

It is the sovereign electorate that will have the last word.

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