Malta [European Journal of Political Research 45]

Abstract

The state of the economy once again dominated national politics in Malta. With a soaring budget deficit and no comfort offered by close to zero economic growth, with unemployment becoming a disturbing issue, the government aimed to increase economic competitiveness by resuming its efforts, begun the previous year, to forge a social pact with trade unions and constituted business bodies. No agreement was reached and the main outcome was a parting of ways by the two chief trade unions along the lines of their habitual political allegiances, with the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) disposed to seek an accommodation and the GeneralWorkers’ Union (GWU) adopting a hard line by blaming government incompetence for the country’s economic problems. This in turn reinforced the traditional, but sometimes vacillating, alliance between the GWU and the opposition Malta Labour Party (MLP), where the leadership in both cases had been subject to sustained internal criticism, particularly since the European Union (EU) membership referendum and general election of 2003.