The Labour government has no credibility whatsoever on the environment and good governance, the head of Department of Public Policy at the University of Malta and political scientist, George Vital Zammit said.
Labour and good governance are like chalk and cheese, he said in an interview with The Malta Independent, highlighting the latest ID cards' scandal that has continued to erode people's trust in institutions.
"Take the environment, just look at Project Green," he said. "Does anyone think that Project Green has managed to find a balance between the environment and development? Embellishing a roundabout didn't change anything."
For its part, the Nationalist Party "for the last decade, has been more vocal on issues of governance but, coherently, it needs to look internally to address its own corporate governance issues, such as the publication of its financial accounts. In order to be an alternative government-in-waiting, it needs to offer a vision which people can relate to, with a credible line-up of candidates that can take executive office if people elect them to power. After this year's elections, the PN cannot rest on its laurels; reform, innovation and the attraction of new talent have to continue for them to be a viable alternative to government".
Vital Zammit was asked if the Maltese parties undertake elections with a "formal" strategy, referring to a planned, systematic strategy that is in writing, which dictates what must be executed to meet it. He said that he believes the parties do so by using a "bottom-up" approach where data is collected through different channels. "Starting from the sectional committees in every village, information is brought in through different means; from surveys, phone calls, house visits, and so on."
Regarding data gathering, Vital Zammit stated that "you can't do that in Germany, Italy, and so on but you can do this in Malta, almost comprehensively. You can build an overarching view of what every village is telling you". He said that this "unique extraction" has been streamlined over the years to be more systematic, sophisticated and kept up to speed with advances in data gathering and statistics. Ultimately in Malta, "what they do with that data is key", he said.
According to Vital Zammit "data collected by political parties' customer care has become increasingly intrusive with people systematically being asked about their voting intentions and whether they need something". However, he continued, "home visits still remain a highly sought-after and essential tool for data collection". He also pointed out that "candidates might choose to keep such data for themselves, driven mostly by the competitive nature of our single-transferrable vote".
When asked if, despite a strategy being "formally" planned in advance, it may easily be adapted and changed, Vital Zammit said that, in fact, current strategy is "fluid". He said that "the rigidity of the past, that the strategy has to revolve around ideological orientation, for example, if you were Left, it will have the workers' rights and social issues as a priority, have almost disappeared". This fluid type of politics is the crystallisation of prominent Polish sociologist Zygmunt Baumann's idea of a "liquid modernity, liquid society".
Vital Zammit continued that when it comes to strategy, the concept of "permanent campaigns", championed by Tony Blair in the early 2000s, took its shape in Malta in different ways. He explained that by "permanent campaigns" he is referring to beginning one's political campaign "the day after you take office. Immediately. And this is something which I think Malta is now adapting to and is facilitated by social media. You campaign on a daily basis and social media is an effective way of doing it".
Vital Zammit has his reservations about the usage of social media by politically-involved people in both parties. "I see this across the board. You know, this thing, call it whatever you wish, fixation, obsession, etc. that candidates have to show people where they ate, what feast they went to, which saint they support. This obsession with taking selfies everywhere and with anyone."
"I would call this the 'selfie generation'. Whether it's a family picnic, a meal at a restaurant or a walkabout, they feel the need to show us and add some hashtags. They are human beings too, but it is certainly overdone." Furthermore, he believes, "the 'Prosit Ministru mentality' is prevalent due to our adulation towards politicians, sometimes congratulating them for just doing what they are expected to do. Needless to say, such comments invariably attract their fair share of detractors always ready to rebuke and attack". While he appreciated the sentiment that constituents would be happy to see their candidate "close to the people", he said "politicians should seek recognition through advocacy and representation, rather than posting constantly on social media".
Though Vital Zammit spoke of the new-found power of social media he said "it would be incorrect to say that it's just social media when it comes to strategy. It's not. Social media is one instrument. But we still see a heavy dependency on coffee mornings when it comes to a particular age group. TV stations, as well, are still very important mediums".
Regarding television, in particular, he took the opportunity to point out that lessons from the past have not been learnt. "Regrettably it seems that ethics in broadcasting is still elusive. Take One TV, which seems to have learned nothing after Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination. We still see reportages targeting people in the public domain, from civil society activists to opinion writers. Kevin Cassar is the typical example. He is referred to as the 'failed candidate from the past' and as 'Fenech-Adami's brother-in-law', which are attributes meant to discredit and dehumanise him. The same applies to activist Robert Aquilina, who received personal threats from people who were later found guilty in Court."
Returning to the point at hand, Vital Zammit said "society is changing and I think the main challenge for political parties has become addressing young people with social media offering better reach. Gone are the days when the new generation voted like their parents. Those times have changed. There are young people who have gone completely opposite of what their parents did, politically. They are either completely disenchanted, disappointed by politics in general or else, have different ideas. Political parties today have a significant challenge in engaging Generation Z (born 1997-2012), and one of the testaments to this is their absence in traditional political activities".
Honing in on a basic campaign tactic, slogans, Vital Zammit said he "found the PL slogan, Is-Saħħa lill-Maltin, very ambiguous. I couldn't understand what it means and I could not see the rationale or logic behind it". He went on to question what the meaning of saħħa is, from power to health and well-being. So, with no explicit explanation of the slogan by the party, he said, "I think Labour purposely chose it to be ambiguous, because it has been used in many different ways".
When asked if Is-Saħħa lill-Maltin could be a loose reference to a verse from the national anthem, Vital Zammit replied: "Could be. But if so, it is derived from saħħa lill-ħaddiem referring to better working conditions and dignity. If it is the case, it is very ill-timed, with a spiralling number of accidents, including fatalities at work, and modern-day slavery, especially with third country nationals (TCNs). If it is the case, the choice of slogan sounds paradoxical."
"Saħħa literally meaning health, if anything, is probably one of the most precarious issues at the moment, both mental and physical. It's almost tongue in cheek with so many people's well-being currently suffering due to Malta's huge issues with sustainability, the provision of electricity, traffic and other issues," Vital Zammit added. He went on to address the "elephant in the room", following "two big blows for Labour", incidentally, in the health sector. "First, the annulment of the massive contract for the provision of health services by the Courts, and second, the Vitals inquiry, which is ongoing but has recommended the arraignment of a former leader, deputy leader and Finance minister of the Labour Party in government," he said.
On the other hand, Vital Zammit commented on Għalik, the PN's slogan for the 2024 elections. "I think, it is more fitting because Għalik [for you] is the crystallisation of what politics is all about. Politics is a service to the community, a service to the people. Though Għalik may not be an exceptional slogan, people can relate to it, as opposed to Saħħa lill-Maltin.
Regarding the plans of attack of both parties, Vital Zammit began by saying that the Labour's campaign to label Roberta Metsola as a "warmonger" was "false and totally, intentionally misleading, aside from the fact that the defence of Europe should not be taken lightly". He added that the Prime Minister himself signed a treaty of defence back in March with the other European leaders.
Going on a salient tangent, Vital Zammit pointed out some other blunders of the Prime Minister, starting with the infamous "establishment". He said: "I don't know whether the Prime Minister realizes how silly it sounds when he refers to the 'establishment'. The Prime Minister is the establishment: the locus of power and authority, and that's how it should be. Equally ludicrous was his reference to the Commission for the Administration of Justice part of the 'establishment' - a cursory look at its members would show how baseless such a claim is." So, the Prime Minister is trying to imply that there is a hidden power that is operating underhandedly. Yet he is in power and his party has been in power for the past 12 years. Furthermore, the recent musical chairs with public appointments better explains how the real establishment works."
An additional yet arguable blunder was the Prime Minister damning the judiciary because of the timing of the Vitals hearings. "The timing helped, not hindered, the government. It allowed the government to play the 'victim card' and portray the judiciary in a certain way," he said, before adding that "the way Labour media treated Magistrate Gabriella Vella was equally obnoxious".
On the other hand, when asked about the PN's policy of continuously attacking the government's failure to maintain good governance and if voters may have been put off by the same rhetoric, Vital Zammit disagreed. "The PN waged a continuous war against bad governance and maladministration, as it should. If notions of good governance are literally thrown out the window by the government, the PN has a duty to speak about these issues, even if it sounds like a broken record for a few people." He said that such bad governance resulted in Malta being grey-listed by the FATF and added that some expect the PN to up the ante further and increase its vigilance, given the abundance of cases.
Vital Zammit said that the ongoing Identità scandal is big. He said "it sheds light on the lack of integrity of many, many processes in the country". Furthermore, he said: "With no resignations or shouldering of responsibility from public officials so far, the PN, but not only, is duty bound to hold the government to account." He also warned, "According to Article 25 of the Schengen Borders Code (Regulation 2016/399), a member state may be constrained to reintroduce border control if there is a threat to public policy or internal security."
At this point, Vital Zammit noted an emerging phenomenon. "Both parties have their core vote, but there is a 'fluid' segment of the electorate which is becoming bigger, and these have already shown that they cannot be taken for granted." When asked if this "fluid segment" could be called floating voters, he disagreed. "A few years ago I would have said yes but now we might have a new emerging pattern."
"A floating voter is one who would sway the vote according to personal needs and convictions rather than fixed ideas. But in this case, what we're seeing is different. We might be assisting to an emerging group of people, who are getting disenchanted and disenfranchised. Some might feel that this detachment has been forced on them, due to lack of choice. Others might have disconnected or switched off as they have been let down with no remedy in sight. I also think the frustration of some people is that they don't manage to see the difference between the two main political parties."
In Malta it's a new phenomenon, but in the US or in Italy, it's the norm, he said. For example, in 2000, George W. Bush was elected president by just half of the American electorate, with almost half of all the American electorate not casting their vote.
"2024 was a very humbling experience for the government. But, again, 2024 has confirmed that for the fifth time the Labour Party has won the European elections. The MEP elections in Malta, with no exception, have been won by Labour from the start even when it was still a Eurosceptic party. Numbers don't lie; Labour won the 2024 elections, but the super-majority of the past diminished drastically in what seemed like a huge wake-up call for the government. Only time will tell whether and how that message will be heeded."
As a general take-home critique of the MEP elections, and certainly not restricted to Malta, Vital Zammit said that during the MEP campaigns, emphasis is usually put on local issues and not enough discussion is dedicated to European issues. He explained: "Local affairs are important, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that politicians are educating the people about Europe as an economic, political and social project."
"I think politicians do not tend to make enough effort to educate people, for example, even how the European Parliament works. And because of this, perhaps people raise their expectations too high without understanding the dynamics of how Europe works, namely, through dialogue, negotiation and compromise across national and party lines. So, in a way, I think that is always a lost opportunity."