Politics in crisis

It was not a surprise to learn that political parties are finding it hard to attract candidates for the upcoming round of local council elections, which will be held concurrently with the European Parliament election in June.

Local councils were installed in the early 1990s and over the last 30 years some of them have made a difference in the locality they were responsible for. In other areas, there was negligible progress while, unfortunately, in others the situation goes from bad to worse time and again.

Local councils have served as a platform for many young aspiring politicians who used them as a stepping stone onto national politics. But it is clear that, in the last few years, fewer and fewer youngsters are taking an interest in politics, both at a local level as well as from a national point of view.

A cursory look at the list of councillors in each and every locality shows that the number of young people forming part of the council is small, which means that lack of participation from the under 30s has been a trend for quite a while. This has happened in spite of efforts to generate more interest, such as allowing 16- and 17-yearolds to vote (they did so for the first time in 2019) and, more recently, the idea to have people under 18 allowed to become mayors.

It’s not only because local councils have progressively lost their powers, and have become simple administrators without too much of a say in important matters, while having to bear the brunt of criticism from their residents about the little things that they can do and the many things they are not responsible for.

Over the past months we have had several mayors complaining that local councils have lost too much of their power, and that the decentralisation idea that local councils started with in 1992, in the past years has seen a reversal to more centralisation.

But the crisis in politics goes beyond local councils.

There is a crisis in politics on a national level too, and the President felt the need to highlight this in his Republic Day speech.

“Corruption, both proven and alleged, gnaws at the very backbone of democracy, and deters those who wish to participate in political and public life,” he said last Wednesday. “I am heartened to see so many youths active in political life, but I am sure we are discouraging a lot more talent because of the extremely partisan way in which we do our politics.”

We are not too sure about the President’s assessment regarding the participation of youths in politics, but we agree that many are being discouraged because of the state of affairs.

There are other reasons as to why there is a crisis. For one thing, the current political class (read: politicians) leaves so much to be desired. There are no leaders who are inspirational enough to serve as examples and role models.

There were times, in the not too distant past, where young generations looked up at their political leaders with admiration. Some were drawn into politics because of those leaders. Today, it does not happen anymore. Or, at least, fewer and fewer youngsters hold politicians in high regard. The fact that so many of them have been caught doing the wrong thing or involved in high-end scandals does not help instil confidence in the political class.

We are then in a situation in which the Labour Party, in government for the last 10 years, has been progressively showing signs of fatigue. The Nationalist Party still appears far away from being seen as an alternative government and the smaller parties are, well, too small to make any difference. In a nutshell, politics is offering too little to encourage newcomers.

Added to this, there are then too many distractions for today’s younger generations and these have led them to have a weaker sense of sacrifice. The young people of today are too engrossed in their own little world and are not prepared to having a life of being of service to others. They have all the comforts and pleasantries of a life of technology, travel and entertainment, and this kind of lifestyle pushes them away from the idea of helping their community – both at local and national level. So long as they can stick to their hobbies, have enough money to amuse themselves and enjoy their life, they do not care much about what is happening around them.

That interest in politics is waning could also be seen from the turnout in the last national election, held in 2022. For the first time in nearly 60 years, the number of people who cast their preference in the election reached only 85%, while in previous elections, held between 1971 and 2017, voter participation had always exceeded 90%.

Turnout in local and EP elections is always lower than this – it hovers around the 70% mark – and the election in June will give a strong indication as to whether the downward trend will continue.