Population is increasingly coming into the centre of Malta’s political discourse. 

The Nationalist Party has made the increase in the country’s population, and what it perceives to be its consequences, as one of its consistent political points in the last few years; but only in much more recent times has it really come to the fore in the public discourse.

Malta’s population has increased significantly in the last decade – that is a fact. It increased by 28.6% between 2012 and 2022, and as statistics published a couple of weeks ago to mark World Population Day show that the country’s current population is of over 563,000.

This increase, as per national statistics, has been largely down to foreigners immigrating to Malta: in 2012 the share of foreigners living in the country stood at 5.5%, while the same share in 2022 stood at 25.3%.

The suggest that the economic model followed by the Labour Party’s government in the last decade was not in some way, shape, or form reliant on an increase in population would be naïve at best.

What is worst, however, is not the population increase itself – anyone has the right to travel and start a new life anywhere they please – but it is the sheer lack of foresight which was associated with it.

The Labour government knew it was prioritising economic growth through, at least in part, population growth – and yet made little to no plans on how to cater for it.  What the country is currently experiencing is a direct consequence of that total lack of planning.

Alarm bells are ringing everywhere: the health sector is at breaking point, the country’s electricity grid is not up to scratch, the country’s sewage system can’t keep up either, and traffic remains the order of the day.

On health, the government has effectively admitted that what it has right now can’t keep up with the demand.  People are left waiting to be treated for hours upon hours, and the government has accepted that some services just have to be outsourced to the private sector.

Perhaps had the government not squandered €400 million in a hospitals concession which turned out – to the surprise of very few, considering Vitals’ credentials – to be a total fraud, then the situation would be better.

On electricity, for a second summer in a row multiple localities have been plunged into darkness as the country’s distribution system has not been able to cope with demand.  The government built a shiny new power station – another monument to corruption and subject to criminal inquiries – but didn’t complement it with the infrastructure to actually get electricity into people’s homes.

As more people have come to Malta, the demand for electricity has grown – and grown, and grown – and the system hasn’t been able to keep up.

Even on sewage, the country is now stuck with some bays contaminated from sewage overflow – and that’s if you’re relaxed enough to make it to a bay in the first place, because despite €700 million invested in new infrastructural projects people are stuck in traffic all the same.

The country’s very basic services are bursting at the seams, and that’s not the fault of those who have come here: it’s the fault of those who have encouraged them to come here, and not planned for their arrival.

Now, the government appears to have realised that things are coming to a head.  Just yesterday, the Home Affairs Ministry announced that no more work permits will be granted to taxi drivers or food couriers.

But the consequences of the government’s lack of foresight are there for all to see, and are there for all to feel.