Conflicting figures

The local political scene, such as it is, was yesterday enlivened by a conflict of figures.

On the one hand, there was the results of the new monthly MaltaToday survey which showed a prime minister strengthening his support and a Leader of the Opposition slipping back.

The figures are nothing short of ominous for the PN leader. Over the past month, the survey showed, the trust gap has widened and Muscat has regained lost ground.

Joseph Muscat is supported by 52.6% of the electorate, a 4% increase over the previous month, while Adrian Delia is supported by 23.5% of the electorate, a drop of 3.7% over the past month. One looks back at what has been happening in the past two months and what we seem to remember is more and more controversies regarding the rule of law, the cases which saw the involvement of assassinated Daphne Caruana Galizia etc.

It would seem though that the public at large was more tuned to the other kind of news which this side of the electorate does

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not seem to have heard – more jobs, more investment, more business coming to Malta, etc.

To these figures from the MaltaToday survey, the PN leader countered with his own set of figures. He spoke about the ARMS bills and said that 80% of the bills submitted by party supporters who approached the party to get them checked, were inflated.

Then he also mentioned a list of people who have to make do on very meager earnings. These included a man who had been getting a €50 pension every month for years (an error which is about to be rectified) but also people whose earnings, mostly pensions, do not allow them to make it to the end of the month, people who cannot buy the medicines they need, let alone make that extra expenditure such as go abroad, take a holiday, etc.

These then are the two sets of conflicting figures facing our country. On the one hand an opinion poll and on the other hand the figures that are leading many to the poverty line. A year ago the Labour Party was confirmed in office with an even greater advantage after a keen campaign based on allegations of corruption and fraud. The situation obtaining today with people at or near the poverty line is not much different from that of a year ago. Yet people voted in droves in support of Joseph Muscat. There are two conclusions from the above. First of all, it is more than clear that the country decided that the PN term is over. And the PN strategy under Simon Busuttil did not affect people’s opinions. On the contrary it reinforced their conviction that the time for a PN government was over.

Secondly, the new PN insistence on inflated ARMS bills and on increasing poverty has not yet made it to mainstream. It has not even made it to PN MPs’ speeches in Parliament, to begin with.

With the rank and file of PN not ready to sing from this new score sheet, it will be hard for Delia to persuade the country. He does not seem to have persuaded the people around him, let alone the country.