Ten years of Labour

The Labour Party has been in government for 10 years. The anniversary has come at the wrong time, as it is possibly the lowest point for the party in power since it took over the reins of the country in 2013.

It has come in the wake of a landmark court judgment that has found the government to have failed in its duties when it signed a long-term deal for the transfer of three hospitals to the private sector. The judgment has had its effects on the way people think, as the most recent political survey has shown that support for the PL has plummeted while that for the PN has risen, putting the two major parties close as they have never been in the past decade.

The PL still enjoys a majority and one will have to see whether last Sunday’s survey on MaltaToday is a fluke or the start of a pattern. We will know more in the weeks to come.

In the last 10 years, Labour has camouflaged all its defects and shortcomings by building a strong economy. All the scandals that have hit the party in government have, until the hospitals deal judgment, had little impact on the way people think.

The economy, in spite of all the difficulties that were experienced in the past years, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, has continued to flourish. The government’s policies have worked well, including the decision to keep the price of fuel and energy stable for the consumer, although this will, in the long-term, have its negative effects.

Most people were happy with the kind of money they have to spend or save – whatever their choice is – and they overlooked or ignored the government’s many shortcomings. The way people continued to vote showed that they were giving more weight to their pockets than to what was happening within the administration.

We had the Panama Papers, the passports issue, the greylisting, a murder of a journalist, a prime minister who resigned in disgrace after being named as the man of the year for corruption and many other issues that did not made the people budge in their collective way of thinking. Labour continued to win handsomely, stretching their lead to even bigger proportions from one election to the other.

It is only now, after the hospitals’ deal ruling, that there has been a shift. One could immediately see it on the social media in the hours and days after the ruling given by Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale. This was then confirmed by the MaltaToday survey.

Labour has passed 10 easy years in government, as nothing that happened – although big – seemed to have an effect. The hospitals’ deal judgment may have started to change that.

We wait and see how things will develop in the next few months.