With a gaping grin, Robert Abela announced in his 2022 Manifesto, that the future is bright. With his landslide victory in the bag, ONE confirmed that Abela will offer a beautiful future. His runner-up and loyal deputy Chris Fearne was bombastically bragging at Labour’s latest General conference that “Throughout history never have the Maltese and Gozitans had it so good”.  “I am certain and the facts prove it that we have, currently, in our country the best quality of life we have ever had,” Fearne insisted. He was wrong.

Just nine days later Maltatoday published a survey showing that a staggering 69% of the entire population believes Malta is heading in the wrong direction. Gone is Abela’s bright future. So much for Fearne’s best quality of life, best life ever in history.

Just one year ago only 35% believed the country was heading in the wrong direction. The vast majority felt Malta was doing well. Twelve short months later the mood has truly soured. That “feelgood factor” that Labour trumpeted has dissipated completely. The country is despondent, depressed and desperate.

Only 51% of 2022 Labour voters believe Malta is on the right track. The other half thinks the country has taken a wrong turn. The primary concern of the majority is the unbearable cost of living. The rising prices and the static salaries are eating away at the nation’s purchasing power. Everybody knows that a salary that took you to the end of the month is now gone after a fortnight. That depressing reality is revealed in Maltatoday’s survey.

48.6% of those who didn’t vote in 2022 believe they are worse off financially than what they previously were.  Only a mere 7.3% claim their finances are now better.

Similarly, amongst PN voters 48.4% are worse off financially.  Only 9.8% feel they are better off.

Contrast that with Labour voters.  33.7%, over one third of Labour voters, are now financially better off. That’s a massive difference from everybody else.  Amongst the rest less than one in ten are better off. Those widely diverging figures mean only one of two things.

Either Labour voters are so brainwashed by ONE and TVM that they falsely believe they’re better off when in fact they’re not.  Or, Labour voters are truly far better off than the rest of us. If it is the latter it provides evidence that Labour only works for Labour - and nobody else. That’s entirely plausible. We’ve seen how Labour supporters were unfairly advantaged through criminal schemes of fraudulent disability allowance claims and driving licences. For years we’ve witnessed an army of ONE “journalists” being given lucrative posts and made members of boards of government entities and companies. The privileged have been given not one but even two concurrent CEO posts. The gravy train of direct orders is incessant. The donation of public land to friendly businessmen has become the norm. Building permits have been dished out in the thousands. Illegalities have been sanctioned. Regulatory authorities have been castrated to enable developers and contractors to do as they please.

It is entirely possible that Labour sympathisers are making hay while the sun shines.  It may well be that Labour supporters benefitted financially thanks to the crooked clientelism and cronyism which their leader publicly declared is their political system. If that survey is correct, while Labour supporters are seeing their finances improve, everybody else is seeing theirs stagnate or contract.

The likelier explanation is that Labour supporters are so blinded by their party’s perennial disinformation that they believe their party’s own lies. Labour’s support is staunchest amongst the lower socioeconomic classes.  They are the ones who suffer most from inflation. Despite the stark reality they struggle with, 54% of those educated to primary level believe the country is on the right track. Amongst the more affluent tertiary educated just 15.9% think so. The paradox is that the categories of people most strangled by Labour’s reckless mismanagement are the ones who remain optimistic. 

Those who’ve suffered most under Labour are the ones who remain most positive. While corruption is the top concern for PN voters and a top 5 concern for non-voters, it’s only a concern for 1.5% of Labour voters. Little do they know that Labour’s corruption is intrinsically linked to their poor quality of life, the high cost of living and the massive overpopulation.

Of course, optimism and positivism are relative terms here. The truth is that there isn’t a single region where a majority feels the country is on the right track. Even the Southern Harbour and South Eastern Labour heartlands, have a negative outlook.  Everybody’s convinced Labour Malta is on the wrong track.

Labour touted itself as the party of the younger generation.  It did everything to endear itself to the young - from cannabis to abortion, from concerts to 16 year-old mayors. Labour’s increasingly desperate marketing is futile. The most disheartened generations are the young. Over 77% of 16 to 35 year olds believe Malta is on the wrong track. Amongst 36 to 50 year olds that figure reaches 80%.

Their major concern is the cost of living. But Alicia Bugeja Said claimed that’s not Labour’s fault. “It’s a global phenomenon”, she protested “and the people take things for granted simply because so much is being invested”. It’s not Labour’s fault. It’s the people’s fault.  If they didn’t take things so much for granted and they would appreciate how great Labour is.  They would believe Chris Fearne’s wild claims - the best ever quality of life in the history of humanity.

If the cost of living isn’t Labour’s fault, the next most pressing public concern - the number of foreigners - certainly is.  Overpopulation is the main concern of 30% of the population.

And do you blame them? They’re the ones facing the traffic, massive power cuts, hospital waiting lists, exorbitant rental prices, overflowing drainage, a rubbish disaster, unaffordable property. No wonder Malta’s younger generations are so disillusioned.

Abela promised us a bright future. Fearne told us we have the best life ever. The only certainty is that both could hardly be more detached from the lived reality of Maltese and Gozitan citizens.