The second week of the electoral campaign in Malta has passed and was mostly overshadowed by international events.
As happened in the first week of the election campaign, Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the main concern for many.
As a result of the invasion, Malta's sale of citizenship to Russian nationals was also under fire, with pressure having mounted to suspend such sale. The government eventually took such action.
Aside from this, a major update on Malta's greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force was also made.
In terms of local politics, the beginning of the week kicked off with the news that Ghasri Mayor Daniel Attard resigned from the Nationalist Party. The move raised many questions as a day earlier he had posted a photo with Robert Abela. Fast forward to Saturday, and Attard addressed a Labour Party rally in Gozo. He did not say if he would join the Labour Party, but did say that the Labour movement "offers hope to all Maltese and Gozitans," and that he felt a pull towards the PL.
Meanwhile, some Labour Party officials disgruntled at their party's leadership of the country told the Malta Independent, under condition of anonymity, that they will almost certainly opt to tear up their vote in the coming general election. Among other things, one such official said: "The PL is showing arrogance because of the majority it has. Genuine supporters like me are fed up because they are ignoring us, simply because they know that whatever they do, they will be re-elected."
Last week also saw former Labour minister Konrad Mizzi, who was expelled from the PL parliamentary group two years ago, announce that he would not contest the election. He has served as an independent MP since 2020 and is also one of the most controversial politicians in Malta's recent history.
Both parties also continued to speak about their campaign pledges and highlighted a variety of party proposals. In addition, both Prime Minister Robert Abela and PN Leader Bernard Grech officially submitted their nominations to contest the election.
Sale of citizenship and Russia's invasion of Ukraine
The invasion of Ukraine is the main topic on everyone's lips, as people are worried about what Russia will do next and about the lives being lost in Ukraine.
While traditionally election campaigns in Malta see the news dominated by political statements and party proposals - which are of course featuring and being reported - and people talking non-stop politics, the situation is different this year.
The sale of Maltese citizenship to Russian nationals came under fire last week. Western powers had announced a commitment "to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship - so-called golden passports - that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems."
At the beginning of the week, Parliamentary Secretary for citizenship Alex Muscat, refused to say whether Malta will stop selling passports to wealthy Russians, arguing that "not all Russians are bad."
There had already been several calls for Malta to stop selling passports to Russians, in view of the international sanctions imposed against Moscow. The PN had also been mounting such pressure.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola delivered a rousing speech in the European Parliament about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and even said "we can no longer sell passports to Putin's friends allowing them to circumvent our security."
On Wednesday, the government took the plunge and Malta suspended citizenship applications for Russian and Belarusian nationals until further notice. While the government said that this was done as it cannot currently effectively carry out due diligence on such applicants, realistically speaking it is likely that it had to cave to pressure.
In a statement, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Citizenship and Communities said that no beneficiaries of any status, related to the grant of citizenship or residence, are on the EU Sanctions List.
What did emerge, however, is that some Russian millionaires who are not on the sanction list do have Maltese citizenship. As an example, the London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in a number of companies which have strong links to Russia, including a company whose CEO is a Russian millionaire who acquired a Maltese passport through Individual Investor Programme (IIP) years ago.
The sale of citizenship is likely to be an issue, at least internationally, in the near future.
One of the PN's points in its electoral manifesto is to improve the citizenship scheme, rather than scrap it. Asked about this, Bernard Grech said: "First of all, we have to make a distinction between sale of citizenship purely as a commodity, and a scheme where individuals invest in the country and have a genuine link and become proud Maltese citizens." He said, however, that if there are more developments leading to increased pressure on Malta to scrap its scheme, "we will acknowledge that pressure and adapt." The PN had been against the scheme in the past, but now seems to be more lukewarm about it.
'Spin' and evading the press
Prime Minister Robert Abela continues to slam questions and reports about his involvement in a property deal back in 2018 with a man charged with serious crimes as 'spin'.
The issue has been ongoing for weeks and still haunts the Prime Minister.
Abela had a stake in a property deal back in 2018 which was eventually transferred to Christian Borg, a man recently charged with kidnapping. It has also been reported that Borg and his associates are being investigated by the police over suspected narcotics smuggling and money laundering. Abela was Borg's lawyer in the past.
Abela denied making a €45,000 profit from the deal as had been reported. He also denied using his prior links to the Planning Authority to influence permit decisions. "At the time of the deal, which hinged on a planning permit to turn a green field into a block of apartments, Abela was the planning authority's chief legal advisor," the Times of Malta had written. "I was not involved in that permit, or any other permit. I always carried out my duties as a planning authority lawyer in a proper manner," Abela told the newspaper.
Abela also evaded the press for a few days, not holding press conferences for a number of days. He also did not take questions from journalists following an event at an aircraft hangar, instead rushing off to a PL rally.
This changed on Saturday, when he held a press conference over the FATF's greylisting.
FATF update
An announcement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was made last week, indicating some good news for the country.
The FATF made the initial determination that Malta has substantially completed its action plan and warrants an on-site visit to verify that the implementation of Malta's AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation and improvement in the future.
Prime Minister Abela said that the efforts on good governance and against money laundering made by Malta in the past months have been recognised by FATF. We are not at the end of the road yet, but we are on the way there, the PM said. He added however that "we must remain cautious and continue working" for Malta to achieve its goal.
Malta's greylisting has been a shadow on the government for a long time, so any good news in this regard would be welcome by the government.
Opposition Leader Bernard Grech also welcomed the update, but warned that much more work needs to be done for Malta to exit the grey list. He also said that the "damage has already been done and will remain for a while."
The PN had long used Malta's greylisting as ammunition to strike out at the PL's handling of the country, and while it could still argue that the PL dragged Malta down this hole in the first place, this latest announcement might dampen the impact of such criticism.
Billboards
As with every election, there is always some form of issue surrounding billboards.
The PL caused anger when it erected a billboard that included an image of Manuel Delia. The billboard, which read 'Bernard il-wiċċ tal-Passat' (Bernard the face of the past), showed Bernard Grech seemingly isolated in front of the PN's HQ, with the faces of PN figures such as Beppe Fenech Adami, Joseph Ellis, Karol Aquilina and Jason Azzopardi behind him. Manuel Delia, who had an internal role within Austin Gatt's ministry when the PN were last in government a decade ago and has since become a blogger and journalist, was one of the faces on the billboard.
The IGM was concerned "that, once again, a journalist is being singled out because of his work, as had happened with Daphne Caruana Galizia before she was assassinated." The PL replaced the billboard.
Proposals
A number of proposals were made by the PN and PL this past week on a vast number of topics.
The Labour Party began its week with a focus on families and children, proposing, among other things, the provision of free laptops to secondary school students and the extension of the government's free childcare service. There were also pledges relating to allowances and tax credits for families.
The PL also proposed an extension of the IVF service to include new services with modern technology. The aim, it said, is to help couples who suffered from miscarriages, couples who ended cycles of IVF which were unsuccessful, and couples who have history of medical complications.
The PL also made a major announcement for businesses. A new Labour government would offer every business in the digital sector a tax credit of €50,000 if they move to Gozo.
On education, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that a Labour government will not only be increasing educators' salaries, but will "heavily invest in strengthening the framework present for all educators." As part of the education reform, Abela also announced that all educators in training, LSEs, and kindergarten student teachers will be paid in full throughout the term of their teaching practice.
The Nationalist Party, meanwhile, pledged to cut down income tax to €15% on the first €500,000 profit made by businesses.
Among the other proposals highlighted by the party this past week, was that it would extend paid paternity leave to 15 days. 8-week parental leave will also be paid for by the government, the PN said. This will need to be taken before the child's 8th birthday.
PN Leader Bernard Grech also elaborated on his party's proposal to add 50,000 square metres of public land to Outside the Development Zone, mentioning White Rocks as one such area.
The party also announced that it will incentivize renting of property to ensure tenants can benefit from subsidies as well as more affordable properties.
One of the more possibly controversial proposals made by the PN is that the party is willing to look into the possibility of going in the direction of land reclamation. He did say that this has to be studied properly in order to consider its feasibility and expense, however in the past such proposals were met with strong criticism.
Other parties, individual candidates and air time
ADPD presented its electoral manifesto, which includes a wide range of proposals that impact directly on citizens' rights such as constitutional changes and clean politics, economy, environment, waste and transport, education, health, sexual and reproductive rights, immigration and unique issues pertaining to Gozo.
"Our agenda is to be of service to the whole community. Clean politics in public life. We want to be a political tool for renewal. Green broom to sweep clean. Politics that serve today while keeping an eye on the impact on tomorrow, ensuring that actions taken today do not deny future generations their right to take their own decisions," the party's leader, Carmel Cacopardo said.
The party later in the week also argued that the political broadcast schedule by the Broadcasting Authority ignores that the PN and the PL have their own radio and TV stations. If this is not taken into consideration, then ADPD will continue to suffer from the imbalance in airtime, it said.
Independent candidate Arnold Cassola had also raised issues with the BA, arguing that neither he, nor some other candidates have received any invitation to appear in political debates or discussions with PN and PL representatives on ONE and NET television.