How civil society organizations brought change to the Maltese government between 2019 and 2020

Abstract

Civil society groups are often classified as transformationalists as they are more likely to adopt an antagoinst attitude towards the governing elites in their quest to change. This chapter will be contextualized within the intensive saga of events that developed in Malta during November 2019 and the following year, mainly calling for resignations after alleged political/business collusion that led to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. In an unprecedented charter, civil society groups rooted in right and left wing politics came together to protest against institutional corruption. Weeks of demonstrations morphed into a national political crisis that had widespread ramifications on the European scale, and the crisis is said to have led to the resignation of the Maltese Prime Minister, raising concerns about the impact it could have on the European Union. The chapter intends to map out the strategies and actions coordinated by civil society groups throughout this period. From a methodological perspective, the study will rest on two streams of data: the first featuring content analysis resulting from news coverage and the second comprising narratives from the leaders of civil society groups who were at the forefront of the protest movement.