The 2008 Maltese general election and the European issue

Abstract

The 2008 election in Malta was narrowly won by the Nationalist Party which secured a third five year term in office; The negative election result led to a leadership change in the Malta Labour Party; EU related issues were prominent in this election but not the “membership versus nonmembership” one; For the first time there was a drop in voter turnout. The Maltese political system remains dominated by the two main political formations, the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party, the smaller parties once again fared dismally; The introduction of the euro on 1 January 2008 could have diminished the Nationalist Party’s re-election chances but did not; Following the election Malta re-joined the NATO’s Partnership for Peace removing one of the main obstacles it faced in participating fully in the EU Security and Defence Policy under the so called Berlin Plus arrangement.