We’re now halfway through this electoral campaign and of all the campaigns I remember, this must rank as the strangest.

First of all, why are we at it now, more than a year early? Early elections are called for one of two reasons: either the government wants to break a political deadlock (as happened with Sant in 1998) or it expects a serious downturn soon so it ‘goes to the country’ before things take a turn for the worse and its chances of re-election fall dramatically.

Time running out

With the government still enjoying a comfortable majority in Parliament, it is easy to see why we are going through the snappiest of snap elections our electoral laws allow. It can also be seen in the slip-ups which you would not expect from a veteran campaigner like our Prime Minister. The truth of the matter is that Joseph Muscat can feel the walls closing in on him. The oxygen in the room is slowly but surely being consumed by the corruption stories that are making the rounds. Time is running out for him.

As we approached the halfway milestone, the government was no longer in control of the news cycle. After all, Labour-friendly newspapers are no match for The Guardian, which this week carried a story about how, with everything that’s going on, the government was forced to call an election while it still holds the much-vaunted post of the EU Presidency. Neither are they a match for Politico or The Economist, who carried similar stories.

In the press

Luxembourg may not quite be a paragon of tax honesty, but when insurer Hiscox came to choose a new post-Brexit venue, it plumped for the Grand Duchy over Malta. That was not unexpected, considering that the Prime Minister’s very actions said that there will be more news in the coming months that won’t be quite so good. Remember that this is the same man who, in the past, took pride in the monicker ‘Malta’s salesman’.

Finally, following another leak, the German authorities discovered that as many as 70,000 offshore companies operate in Malta – a good number of which serve no other purpose than to hide money from the German taxman. The regional Finance Minister of North Rhineland-Westphalia went so far as to describe Malta as “the Panama of Europe”.

Ouch, that hurt. Our Finance Minister might go on record to say that this was just pre-electoral embellishment (the German state is, like us, in the throes of an election campaign). But one thing our Finance Minister cannot do is answer with a “Not us; we don’t do secrecy.’ Prominent people in the government have been caught with their hand in the till and suffered no consequences as a result. It’s not inevitable that, whenever anything smells funny, suspecting looks will first fall on us.

Feeling the heat

I began by saying that this was the strangest election I can ever remember. I’ll finish off by saying that this strangeness is down to one person: Joseph Muscat. He knows that the tide is turning against him. He knows things are spinning way out of his control. He knows that, despite going around distributing freebies like a predecessor 30 years ago, the outcome is still uncertain.

And what does he do? He shifts the blame. He trivialises the problem. He puts it all down to the nefarious and globalist workings of the Opposition. His hopes are hinged on an election victory. If he still had some grasp on reality, he would realise that, even if he were to win, his standing won’t matter but Malta’s will. On 3 June we will know if our reputation will be sinking five years further.