Malta : unstoppable Labour?

Abstract

Contrary to the general European trend, the Maltese Labour Party [Partit Laburista (PL), S&D] won the European election held on May 25th by a comfortable majority, and took four of the six European parliament seats allotted to Malta. It had also won a majority of votes in 2014, although only three seats (Carammia and Pace, 2015). While the opposition Nationalist Party [Partit Nazzjonalista (PN), EPP] failed to halt its electoral decline, the roots of which go back to 2004, it won the other two seats. As in the previous three European elections, the Europhile parties won more than 96% of the valid votes cast. This is consistent with the public opinion surveys conducted by Eurobarometer, which show that the majority of Maltese are supportive of the EU. The election result does not contradict the public opinion polls published by the leading national newspapers prior to the election, which predicted a PL victory between 55-57%.