Prime Minister Robert Abela's statements on the human rights convention, which he described as "outdated" and needing revision, are "a populist flourish" rather than a shift to the right, Dr Andre Paul Debattista, an assistant lecturer at the University of Malta's Institute for European Studies, told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Debattista was asked whether he believes that, in the context of Abela's statements, the Maltese government could potentially be shifting to the right in anticipation of future voter sentiments.

The assistant lecturer remarked that such "populist flourish" is concerning in how it simplifies and obfuscates the arguments. He continued that it is also puzzling as it says "very little" about concrete proposals. Furthermore, he commented that the Prime Minister's statements were "sufficiently ambiguous to create cause for concern" and that he thinks the statement had different audiences.

PM Abela was quoted in a Department of Information press release late last month as having told European leaders during a meeting in Brussels that Malta will use its presidency of the Council of Europe to put a reform of human rights on the agenda. He repeated the same argument in Parliament a few days later. His comments have been sharply criticised and described as an assault on the European Convention on Human Rights, which this year will celebrate its 75^th anniversary.

In his replies to this media house, Debattista said that it seems the Prime Minister's statement caught his own government by surprise, and the academic questioned if it could be a show of power within the government itself. "It was made on the fringes of the EU summit held in Brussels, and there was no previous announcement that the Maltese presidency of the Council of Europe would tackle this issue."

He stated that he thinks there is a broader target audience which is more receptive to populist statements rather than concrete policy proposals. He continued that Abela is arguing that conventions should be reformed in order to "reflect modern-day realities", but Debattista said that this remains "rather ambiguous and requires agreement from other states".

The overall message, Debattista said, is "quite worrying", with human rights having been described as something which "need to be 'merited'". He said that this contradicts the nature of human rights as they are not "granted through 'merit' but are an inherent part of being a human being".

Associate Professor Anna Khakee, an International Relations scholar at the UoM, was also contacted and asked the same question.

Khakee replied that she believes the Maltese government has two choices, which are to "move ever towards populism" or to "move towards addressing some of the root causes of dissatisfaction among voters". With regard to populism, she said that taking this route would mean following what the government thinks makes important voter blocks "tick", including "unwanted migration". The latter choice involves addressing the causes of dissatisfaction, she said, and would include tackling low wages, infrastructure shortcomings, urban over-development and an under-delivering school system in comparison to other European countries. "Of course, the former is easier than the latter," she remarked.

"The Partit Laburista is interesting," Khakee commented, "as it does not necessarily hold the same opinions as many social democratic sister parties elsewhere in Europe."

She said that issues such as combating climate change are normally a left-of-centre concern, "but it is de-facto not a priority in Malta, where greenhouse emissions are increasing and the share of renewables in final energy consumption is the second lowest in the EU".

Khakee said that the same is true for the issue of forced migration. She said that the centre-left is usually more sensitive to migrants' humanity, and that this was also seemingly the case during the first few years of the Labour Party in government, "but that changed, with Covid a notable shift".

There seems to have been a general shift towards the right across western elections, namely in the United States of America and parts of Europe - though there have been exceptions to this, such as the United Kingdom, shifting more to the left, although still there has also been a rise in popularity for the Reform Party there as well. With that in mind, The Malta Independent on Sunday asked Khakee what she thinks are the causes of the apparent shift to the right in western elections.

"To my mind, the shift to the far right is related to the rise in inequalities," she replied. She added that according to data collected by the World Inequality Database, "inequalities, both of income and of wealth, have been increasing markedly since the 1980s". She commented that there is a lot of discussion around how much inequality a democratic system can take before cracks begin to show.

The international relations scholar stated that reducing inequalities and raising minimum wages is usually associated with social democratic parties, but that many left-of-centre governments "seem to have neglected the issue". The PL in Malta, she remarked, is a "case in point".

"The core of all human rights conventions is the right to life. It is also one of the most unanimously held rights: it cuts across all religions and all cultures. It is not clear to me if the Prime Minister wishes to change this right: Do migrants out at sea have the right to life? Or should this right be abolished?" Khakee asked.

NGO Repubblika was among those which suggested that the Prime Minister's comments regarding human rights conventions were made as moves to pander to the far right. The Malta Independent on Sunday asked Debattista for his thoughts on the matter.

"I think the broader context needs to be discussed," he replied. "It seems the Prime Minister wants to target different audiences - or electoral constituencies - in the shortest time possible."

Debattista continued that during the same week that Abela had made his statements, he had also stated that there is an "internal discussion" taking place on euthanasia. Debattista remarked that this statement was similar to the one concerning human rights, being "sufficiently ambiguous in what it says and non-committal regarding the outcome and its form". The academic remarked that "another sensitive and loaded topic" was "reduced to a soundbite", with the only significant difference being the target audience.

"These different overtures suggest that the Prime Minister is attempting to widen the electoral base at a time when there seems to be a lack of imagination within government circles about the different challenges Malta faces," Debattista said.

Responding to questions as to what he thinks are the causes of the apparent shift to the right in western elections, Debattista replied that he thinks there is wider nuance in this matter. He continued that he would question whether it is a conscious shift to the right, whether there are different currents simultaneously, and whether there was a general vote for change or against the status quo.

He remarked that he would suggest three factors to explain the current changes, with the first being that he thinks it is part of healthy democratic politics to see changes and shifts in who governs a particular polity. He commented that it would betray democratic principles if only one specific strand of politics was represented over a more extended period. He added that "democratic politics also implies the election of governments and political parties with which individuals might disagree vehemently and which others may find abhorrent".

The second factor, he said, is that he thinks there is widespread disenchantment with some political parties, and that in some cases, particular concerns were not addressed while in other circumstances, "the priorities were deemed somewhat skewed". He continued that there is a widespread perception that the incumbent political class was out of touch with the broader base. "On the one hand, some parties were reluctant to engage with the disenchantment among blue-collar workers and issues over migration and law and order. On the other hand, there was an inordinate focus on some aspects of identity politics, which failed to resonate with the broader electorate."

He stated that the third factor is that he thinks electoral campaigns still play a critical role, and that in some cases, the electoral campaigns failed to connect with the electorate, "cementing the impression that the incumbent political class was out of touch and unable to deliver".

The academic said that one should be cautious when referring to the "right" and the "far-right" or "extreme-right". He said that despite such ideological terms, contemporary political platforms remain very broad and ideological in their content, "bland and anodyne with very little in terms of substance and depth".

Debattista added that he thinks two factions are forming - the "populist" or "woke" tandem versus "centrist politics which fails to energise the voting base". He said that this should be cause for concern.