Yesterday at its General Council, the Nationalist Party has published its Electoral Manifesto and it contains up to 1000 proposals, many of them in bullet-form. Similar to the Labour Party’s manifesto, the PN’s manifesto lacks deep and holistic thinking about a vision and its mostly composed of a disconnected hotpot of proposals.
Many of the economic proposals mirror Labour’s and as discussed already, this is defeating the purpose of the Opposition apart from giving even more credit to the Labour government.
PN didn’t even bother to publish a whole single PDF for the manifesto which gave me problems reading it carefully. Here are the three most important documents of the manifesto: economy, health and transport. Remarkably there are is no reference to the rule-of-law crisis and the manifesto doesn’t prioritise independent institutions as being proposed by ADPD and Momentum.
It seems that the PN’s flagship proposals for this election are transport and the health sector. PN is proposing to build a mass-transit system and has laid out a plan in series with different lines for its construction with the first two lines cost up to €3.9 billion. PN however also created an image of a metro which I am reposting here in the featured image. This is by far the most positive aspect of PN’s manifesto and the proposal deeply contrasts with Labour’s proposed Third-World-like monorail.
PN are not proposing a Gozo bridge. This is rather bizarre since the Opposition Leader is Gozitan and apparently he wants to keep his fellow Gozitans using the ferry while limiting the rail-line to Malta.
PN is proposing new public hospitals, free cancer medication and also a new mental hospital. PN also comes strong here.
PN has embraced direct subsidies just like Labour and is mirroring Labour’s Peronism. Apart from also promising stipends increases, and workers bonuses similar to Labour, PN is also proposing direct subsidies for first-time home buyers ranging up to €45,000–€50,000, mirroring Labour’s own subsidy programme.
PN is also going heavily on tax cuts. These include a five-year income tax exemption for highly skilled Maltese and EU workers returning to Malta, lower corporate tax rates for businesses relocating operations to Gozo, tax credits for angel investors investing in startups, and capital gains tax exemptions for founders of Maltese startups. The party is also proposing transferable tax credits for carbon-reduction investments and exemptions from import duties on specialised technology and AI equipment.
PN is also proposing a series of income-tax cuts by widening Malta’s tax bands and raising the threshold for the highest 35% tax bracket from €60,000 to €80,000 over two years. Under the proposal, single earners would pay no tax on the first €15,000 of income, while overtime and part-time income up to €10,000 would become tax-free. PN says the reforms would reduce taxes by at least €1,200 annually for workers, pensioners and the self-employed.
PN is also proposing the complete removal of inheritance-related taxes and stamp duty on inherited property and family businesses. Under the proposal, heirs would no longer pay the current 5% causa mortis tax on inherited immovable property, while taxes and stamp duty on family businesses transferred through inheritance would also be abolished. The PN is additionally proposing to eliminate taxes and stamp duty on property donations between parents, children and grandchildren, arguing that families should not face major tax burdens when transferring property or businesses across generation
PN’s energy policies policies are very weak and propose no new power stations only a gradual shift to renewables as Labour is proposing. You can find the energy pogramme here. Here where the serious problems with PN’s vision and proposal start. If they are going to build a metro they are going to have to power it – because the metro is not going to work on diesel. Powering the metro would require more electrical generation but this is not factored in their proposals.
The PN’s electoral manifesto has some very good ideas but PN is still struggling to create a coherent vision which is part of an organised narrative.
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