Four years down, and maybe one to go. That's the most important piece of maths for the Labour Party in this legislature.
The party was elected to power for a third consecutive time on 26 March 2022 with yet another landslide victory: fast forward to 2026, there is - unless Robert Abela goes against his own words and calls an early election - a year left before the next general election.
That makes it a perfect opportunity to analyse the 'Malta Flimkien' movement that the Labour Party was elected under: how much of what the party promised has been achieved? Where has the government been lacking? What was included in the electoral manifesto and has remained purely on page?
The Malta Independent on Sunday deep dives into the Labour Party's 1,000-point electoral manifesto, and the news of the last four years in an attempt to answer those questions.
Money in people's pockets
The economy was - and always has been - a cornerstone of the Labour Party's modern thinking. A strong economy leaves money in people's pockets, allowing them to live better and spend more, hence keeping the economic wheel turning.
Robert Abela stuck very closely to this belief, adjoining it with another long-held belief: any economic burden should be taken on by the government, and not be placed on the people.
The manifesto built heavily on these principles, and measure number 1 out of 1,000 - which says plenty - was to keep Malta's real economic growth at 5.5% per year.
Statistics gathered by Eurostat show that Malta's real GDP rate of change stood at 4.3% for 2022, 6.8% in 2023, 5.9% in 2024, and 4.0% in 2025. While a couple of years were below the promised threshold, Malta was still consistently one of the countries with the highest real GDP growth in the EU.
It's been enough for Abela's administration to come good on a key pledge to keep energy prices stable (proposal 395), even if it needs government subsidy, and a vast array of promises which are designed to leave more money in people's pockets.
Among these, for example were promises to reduce the amount of income tax that people pay and to reduce the amount of income tax paid by parents. The PL's electoral manifesto promised a reduction of income tax worth €66 million: the one actually implemented from the start of 2024 was worth around €140 million. Another tax cut worth €160 million across three years was announced for parents starting from this year.
It's fair to say that the PL has by far exceeded what it has promised in this regard.
Other electoral pledges were similarly fulfilled, or are on track to being fulfilled.
A pledge to introduce a new additional Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to impact more vulnerable households was fulfilled in the first Budget of the legislature, while another key promise to offer a €10,000 grant spread over 10 years for first-time buyers was introduced in February 2023 and has been sustained ever since.
Another key promise to increase the country's minimum wage was also fulfilled in October 2023 with increases guaranteed every year until 2027, while the government has also significantly strengthened the working conditions of tens of thousands through new collective agreements for all public sector workers, teachers, the Malta Police Force, nurses, the Armed Forces of Malta, and a host of other public sector entities.
The Children's Allowance meanwhile has increased by €750 since the start of the legislature - significantly more than the €450 promised in the electoral manifesto.
A promise to increase pensions by €15 per week, not inclusive of COLA, is also on track to being fulfilled: pensions are up by €12.89 per week so far since the start of the legislature with one Budget still to go... that is, unless Abela calls an election early.
There are plenty of other measures in this regard which the PL has fulfilled - but the greater question perhaps is in terms of whether they have had the desired impact.
One clue to answer that is in what the PL itself envisaged: Proposal 99 - the first in their chapter on social measures - said that the aim is for Malta to have "among the lowest" rate of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union.
The 'People at Risk of Social Exclusion' - more conveniently abbreviated to AROPE is the share of the total population which is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. It is the main indicator to monitor the EU 2030 target on poverty and social exclusion and was the headline indicator to monitor the EU 2020 Strategy poverty target.
EU-SILC data, shared by the NSO indicates that in 2022, the AROPE rate stood at 20.1%, thus registering a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from 2021. In 2023, the AROPE rate stood at 19.8%, thus registering a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from 2022. In 2024, the most recent year for which statistics are currently available, the AROPE rate had decreased by a mere 0.1 percentage points to 19.7%.
The most recent Eurostat data on this metric, which is for 2024, shows that the EU average for the AROPE rate is 21.0%. This means that Malta is a bit below the EU average in this regard.
That, however, isn't the promise - the PL promised that Malta should have "among the lowest" AROPE rate in the EU. It's a somewhat vague quantification - but the fact is that there are 13 EU countries out of 27 with lower AROPE rates than Malta, meaning that Malta is pretty much in the middle of the classification - not among the lowest.
Does this mean that all of the PL's social measures have failed? Far from it. It does however seem to signal that the measures were necessary for the country to simply keep up the same standard of living - rather than necessarily improve it.
A green Malta
The environment was a key focus area for the Labour Party back in 2022. Abela, quite rightly, had seen that the people were fed up with over-development having taken over Malta, and with there being a sheer lack of open green spaces for them to enjoy.
The promise, unveiled in the PL's first election campaign press conference, was simple: €700 million euros of investment in green spaces spread across 7 years - mirroring what Joseph Muscat's Labour Party had promised as investment in Malta's roads.
A new entity would be set up to spearhead the investment, and the PL also wheeled out a host of projects - together with concept renders - that they would do if elected.
The areas slated for the promised greenification: A tract of land between Cospicua and Senglea which had initially been slated to be dormitories for the American University of Malta; a busy road junction near the San Gwann church where traffic was to be directed to an underground tunnel; Floriana's busy St Anne's Street which would get the same tunnel treatment; Victoria's Pjazza San Franġisk; the Malta Dairy Products Ltd factory in Hamrun would be shifted elsewhere and the area would be turned into public gardens; the valley in Qasab Street in Birkirkara would be roofed over; Regional Road in Santa Venera would be roofed over as well, and a similar study for the roofing over of Triq Dicembru 13 in Marsa would also take place.
It's quite a hefty list of projects. Fast forward four years, how many of those projects have actually been achieved? The answer: none.
Project Green was the entity set up in early 2023 to manage the vast investment and portfolio of planned projects - and while there has been significant work done by the agency over the past years on several open spaces across the island, the fact remains that very few of the initially promised projects have made it to fruition.
Out of those listed above, the closest to completion is the proposal for the area which was slated to be dormitories for the AUM - but even in that case, construction work hasn't actually begun yet. Permits have been issued, tenders have been granted - but the project is yet to physically get off the ground.
In the case of the San Gwann project, work on the first phase - an underground car park - is ongoing, but plans for an underground tunnel were shelved, meaning that the plan for the project as a whole went back to the drawing board. As far as formalities go, it's still there: no new applications for this project have been filed with the Planning Authority by Project Green.
A tunnel running under St Anne's Street in Floriana - a much vaunted project - was deemed to be unfeasible in late 2024. A public consultation for the 'first phase' of the updated project for the area launched in August 2025 shows one lane out of the busy thoroughfare being pedestrianized. Thus far, it is a far cry from the pre-election promise.
Meanwhile, the proposed roofing of Triq il-Qasab in Birkirkara is nowhere to be seen, the roofing of Regional Road in Santa Venera appears no closer to being anything but a pipe dream, no alternative site for the relocation of the milk factory in Hamrun has been found, meaning that the project there remains stalled, and the roofing over of Triq Dicembru 13 in Marsa has been deemed as unfeasible as well.
So all in all, as far as what the major projects that were promised go - the track record isn't a good one.
But it would unfair to not take into consideration other government actions in this regard.
Plenty of projects have been successfully completed. Some are larger in scale, such as the Bengħajsa Family Park (even if that's currently closed because it's being expanded), and plenty of others are small town parks.
But an indelible part of this government's legacy will be decisions to reassume control of Manoel Island, to earmark the White Rocks complex to become a green space, to get back Fort Tigne in Sliema and Fort San Salvatore in Cottonera, and to commit to turning Fort Campbell in Mellieha into a public open space as well.
None of these ideas featured in the PL's electoral manifesto - yet they are projects which, if they make it to fruition, will be defining for this legislature, and which the PL will no doubt point towards for years to come as proof of their green credentials.
Promises fulfilled elsewhere
It's difficult to summarise the implementation of a 1,000 proposal electoral manifesto in a two-page story. There were of course plenty of other areas that the manifesto focused on other than the economy, social measures, and the environment - and the government has fulfilled a good chunk of what it had promised in other areas as well.
For example: Malta became among the first countries in the EU to open a European Digital Innovation Hub - DiHubMT in November 2024, there were significant reforms in the labour market which abolished zero-hour work contracts, licensed temp work agencies, and implemented a national policy on the labour market.
Other notable measures, for instance, include legal changes concerning IVF - which were implemented in the first 100 days of the legislature as promised, the criminalisation of virginity testing, continued investment in the equipment for the Police Force and Civil Protection Department, the strengthening of the Family Court, increases in the number of members of the judiciary, and the introduction of legislation so that those aged younger than 18 can be elected as mayors.
As of April 2025, the Labour Party said that it had implemented 66% of the electoral manifesto up until that point - that's equivalent to 660 measures out of the 1,000 which were promised. The current figure is likely to have increased - although right now, there is no independent way of tracking that.
What the PL hasn't done
It would be naïve to think that any political party can ever achieve everything it sets out to do. Plenty of circumstances can get in the way of things - but it would be remiss not to mention where the PL has failed to live up to what it promised.
One notable promise, for instance, which wasn't kept, was one which appears very early on in the party's manifesto. Proposals 11 to 16 revolved around the launch of a National Plan for Socioeconomic Regeneration. The manifesto says that that the study was meant to be conducted in the first year of the new legislature, and that measures targeting particular localities identified in the study would be implemented.
This plan was mentioned in the manifesto and at one political activity in the run-up to the general election, and then never again. As far as what is publicly available, the measure was never fulfilled.
Another area is transport, where the top measure in the electoral manifesto (proposal 413) was for the government to create a transport culture which moves away from car dependency.
NSO statistics show that there were 414,669 motor vehicles registered in Malta in the first quarter of 2022. By the end of 2025, that number stood at 457,403 - an increase of 42,734 vehicles, equivalent to 10.3%.
A Eurostat survey published earlier this month also found that in 2024, 58% of people in Malta did not use any public transport whatsoever. This is the eighth highest frequency for people in any EU country to never use public transport, despite Malta effectively making its Tallinja service free in October 2022 (which was an electoral pledge, in fairness).
A target to build 1,200 charging points for electric cars by the end of 2025 was missed - there were only 378 charging points by September 2025, the target in the manifesto to build the second interconnector between Malta and Italy by 2025 has also been missed, and the target to finish the Hal-Far race track by the end of the legislature seems difficult to reach.
Other promises are nowhere to be seen.
A promise to implement a gender-quota system into the 2024 local council elections was not fulfilled, a promise to seal the role of journalists in the Constitution through a wide-reaching reform remains on Parliament's agenda gathering dust as it has for several years, the promise of a new sports complex at the University of Malta is yet to get off the ground despite permits being in hand, while there is no sign of the promised public consultation on the country's electoral system or the idea of using one's ID card as a voting document.
There were promises to add people not involved or appointed by political parties to the Broadcasting Authority Board, to continue the national discussion on updating the Constitution, and to recognise that the Valletta Opera House should be roofed over.
None of those have come anywhere near to being implemented.
There is, however, still time for that to change - at least if Abela is intending to see out his full term until March 2027.
Speculation has, again, been ramping up in recent weeks that Malta may be heading to the polls early - potentially in June 2026, nine months before the legislature is slated to end.
It's not the first time that there have been rumours of an early election and, each time, the Prime Minister has poured cold water on them, saying that his government still has work to do and promises to fulfil.
Be it June or March next year, one thing is certain: it's now the final stretch for a Labour government fighting to stay in power for a fourth consecutive term - something no political movement has achieved in Malta's post-independence history.