Labor keeps voters happy with favours. However, the contradictions in the island state are becoming ever more apparent.
The head of government, the gangster, the policeman. «King of Karnival», mural by Maltese street artist James Micallef Grimaud aka Twitch.
The mural shows the head of government, Robert Abela, as a bodybuilder with a clown’s nose, flanked by a gangster with a cigar and a comical policeman, in front of a backdrop of excavators and skyscrapers. This is the political, economic and social state of Malta, summed up by the street artist James Micallef Grimaud aka Twitch. Ten years of Labor rule have brought an economic boom. However, criminals hijacked the state during this time.
Malta today has more population, cars, money and wealth than ever before. It has over 500,000 inhabitants and over 400,000 motor vehicles, they are always stuck in traffic. Gross domestic product rose loudly World Bank since 2013 year after year, from 9 to 14 billion dollars, only recently there was a setback because of the corona pandemic. With this record of success, the Labor government is expected to win the forthcoming election on March 26 by a wide margin. A plausible explanation is that many people don’t care about corruption as long as they benefit themselves.
On the “grey list”
Financial services are now Malta’s key industry, and companies based here value low taxes and lax regulation. In June, however, Malta was recognized by the NGO Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed on the “grey list” of money laundering countries and is therefore “under increased surveillance”. So far, this has not led to a dramatic exodus of domiciliary companies, it recently explained john momo, the chief financial officer.
Prime Minister Robert Abela is currently in a bad light. The former boxer and lawyer has to spend all the more in the election campaign.
The controversial one made a significant contribution to the boom “Passport Scheme”, set up by the Labor government after its election victory in 2013, at the suggestion of the Swiss lawyer Christian Kaelin. Malta is selling its citizenship – and with it that of the EU – to wealthy foreigners for a price of 1.5 to 2 million euros.
The buyers pay a fee, they buy themselves and their next of kin into the National Development Fund, and they also invest in real estate or companies. The process is called “citizenship through investment”. Donations to more or less charitable organizations related to the government are welcome. Very few passport buyers settle in Malta, buying or renting their homes for the sake of appearances.
Fictional and real immigrants
According to estimates, around one billion euros is thanks to that passport trade since 2014 into the treasury of Malta, another billion into the economy as a whole. The Eu Parliament want to stop this business. The Maltese government, however, takes the position that the country alone decides who is a citizen. An important group of naturalized New Maltese are Russian oligarchs. Because of the Ukraine war and the sanctions, such people can no longer purchase passports.
Both fictitious and real immigrants have contributed to the Maltese boom. 100,000 immigrants are currently living and working loudly Eurostat on Malta. Half of them come from European countries, half from non-European countries, mainly from Asia. On the buses, many passengers are black, as are many drivers; without them, public transport would collapse. Women from the Philippines and India care for old people. Men from Serbia or Romania work on the construction sites. The gambling industry, in turn, supports itself according to one study mainly on specialized forces from Poland or Great Britain.
In business with the mafia
The Labor years were marked by some large and many smaller corruption scandals. Ministers, civil servants and businessmen enriched themselves at the expense of the general public. A tangle of companies and shell companies made the headlines: Pilatus-Bank, 17 Black, Nexia BT, Electrogas, Vital’s Global Healthcare. It was about bribery accounts in Panama and Dubai, about questionable private-public partnerships in the energy and health sectors. The blogger reported on this activity Daphne Caruana Galizia, she uncovered who paid or received bribes. To silence her, she was spectacularly murdered in October 2017 as a warning to everyone.
The criminals miscalculated. The murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was not a liberation, but led to protests and the overthrow of the government after a delay.
The processing of the murder case and the corrupt business is sluggish. But in January, even former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat found one house search instead, something like this was unthinkable until then. The criminal circles have growing cause for concern. «The main task of Robert Abela is to uphold impunity. The Labor Party has nothing to do with socialism,” says blogger Manuel Delia. The Prime Minister used to work as a lawyer for Mafiosi and did business with them. Currently there is a property trading Abelas to talk to a shady young entrepreneur suspected of money laundering and kidnapping.
“By the end of 2019 the Labor government was dead but the pandemic saved it,” Delia said. A wave of protests led to Muscat’s resignation and the dismissal of his chief of staff, Keith Schembri. The merging of business and government circles in common criminal activities had become all too obvious. But during the epidemic, the protests died down and the pressure from outside eased. In the background, Joseph Muscat is still pulling the strings, says Delia, who has had police protection for some time.
Keep voters happy
The Labor government makes a lot of money with the “golden passports”. In this way she finances roads, social programs and charity for her minions. Delia says: «Labour is extremely good at micro-campaigns. They give their constituents what they expect of them. A building permit here, a grant there, they get votes for that. This is how clientelism works. That’s how they stay in power.”
“Robert Abela 2022” is the programme. The Labor Party covers Malta with posters. She is certain of winning the election.
According to Delia, there is only a rudimentary public discussion about the situation in the country, and it is limited to small sections of the population. There are always revelations in the English-language press. But in the Maltese-language media, opinion is shaped by the party lines of the Labor Party and the Nationalist Party. This deepens the division of society into two camps.
The head of government is no longer taboo
The ruling party dominates the street scene with its stylish posters without making a statement. Apparently she also has a lot of money for online advertising. In fact, she could sit back and relax. The Labor leadership appears to fear their system of rule may prove more shaky than previously thought. The opposition is divided and sidelined, it remains as good as invisible.
For artist Micallef Grimaud, the 2019 protests were a turning point. “People have woken up. Many are angry about the corrupt politicians and are surprised that none of them are in prison. Scandal after scandal, but the politicians seem untouchable.” When he attacked Joseph Muscat with a mural in 2017, a wave of indignation swept over him. “No one was allowed to criticize the head of government at the time, only Daphne Caruana Galizia dared. Today, the head of government is no longer taboo.”
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