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The Maltese Herald

An election characterised by a fragmented opposition

—

by

Mark Camilleri
in ,

Yesterday, late at night, ADPD released what seems to be its last press release before election day. The press release condemned PN Leader Alex Borg’s comments during the last mass rally held by the PN in Floriana. ADPD condemned Alex Borg’s attack on small opposition parties, after he stated that a vote for smaller parties and not for the PN is a wasted vote. ADPD said that this is the traditional mantra of the PN in every election.

Sadly, this general election campaign has been characterised by a very divided opposition, with the Labour Party remaining the biggest and most cohesive political bloc in Maltese politics. This political conundrum was addressed by Simon Busuttil, who attempted to open the Nationalist Party to European-style coalition movements despite stiff resistance from party conservatives. Simon Busuttil was right in theory, even if his application failed. The Nationalist Party returned to focusing on its hegemony after Simon Busuttil’s attempt failed, but by doing so, PN simply returned to an outdated status quo and is now repeating its game over and over again.

Even in the alternative opposition, divisions are only growing. The launch of the new party Momentum has only served to lessen the chance of electing a third-party candidate to Parliament, with two similar parties competing for votes against each other. Momentum is like the anti-feminist alternative to ADPD. The abortion issue was just an excuse by Arnold Cassola to go at it alone: most of the two parties are in agreement on many core matters especially on the environment.

There’s clearly a lot of motivated individuals who want to do politics on every level and not just to contest the general elections. What motivates many of these people is another issue. The Labour Party is attracting any Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to get a government job. In fact a very large portion, if not the majority of the Labour Party candidates have a job with the government. No honourable and morally-driven individual would want to join the Labour Party for the first time at this point in history: those who join it today are opportunists who don’t know what it means to be in opposition and they will bail as soon as they risk losing their government-backed source of income.

The rent-seeking is high with the Labour Party right now. Those who oppose the Labour Party right now are doing an honourable thing, but gaining power is an altogether different matter. The new Opposition Leader does not lack enthusiasm and ambition, but like many of his fellow generals, he still seems ambivalent and even oblivious to the Zeitgeist of Maltese politics. I recommend reading books and more, but this is not enough. It should be obvious by now to everyone that challenging Labour requires a broad-based and coordinated systematic opposition. It is even more obvious that more practical results can be achieved if the opposition works together instead of against each other.

You can view the the footage of the PN rally here.

The ADPD press release is being published below.

PR28/05/2026 Alex Borg u l-PN iddisprati jirrepetu l-istess attakki tas-soltu. Tuh risposta ivvotaw 1 ADPD.

 

Alex Borg fi tradizzjoni twila tal-Partit Nazzjonalista, li jaħseb li huwa l-partit li għandu xi dritt divin biex jiggverna, reġa’ fetaħ attakk kontra partiti żgħar waqt meeting tal-PN. Reġa’ tenna l-gidba Nazzjonalista li vot għal partiti oħra hu vot li hu ta’ periklu għal Malta u għad-demokrazija. Ilna li drajniha din il-kantaliena. L-ikbar theddida għad-demokrazija huwa l-PN li hu ineffettiv u xott mill-ideat.

 

Sandra Gauci, Chairperson ta’ ADPD qalet: ‘Il-PN joffri politika kopja ta’ dik tal-PL, politika favur l-ispekulaturi u l-qerda tal-ambjent, barra li joffri wkoll politika ekonomika bbażata fuq it-tniġġis. Aktar minn hekk l-PN joffri politika konservattiva wkoll favur l-interessi b’saħħithom bħall-industrija tal-fossil fuels u kontra avvanzi soċjali, kif juru l-voti tal-MEPs tal-PN u l-PPE fil-Parlament Ewropew. Tkunx qisek baby iddisprat għal gażaza Alex! Grow up.”

 

“Min irid jagħti messaġġ ċar u tond u jibgħat messaġġ qawwi kontra s-sistema politika skaduta tal-PLPN, bla dubju jhares lejn il-proposti progressivi ta’ ADPD u jivvota għal tindifa nobis ta’ dan il-pajjiż. Qum fuq tiegħek, u tħallihomx jiddettawlek x’għandek tagħmel. Biex Malta u Għawdex ifiequ vvota 1 ADPD.”

Comments

7 responses to “An election characterised by a fragmented opposition”

  1. Bastjan avatar
    Bastjan

    Well, it’s now a day of reflection, so reflect all you like, but https://bastamhuxlejber.com/

    Reply
  2. CeeEmm avatar
    CeeEmm

    Fact of the matter is that in this particular election especially, unless you really really HATE the PN and PL then voting for a third party plays right into the hands of Labour and lets be honest, the chances of a third party being elected to parliament are almost nil.

    Vote a third party, they fail to get a seat and those votes end up going to both PN and Labour anyway. And PN needs those votes, all of them more than Labour does.

    The coalition style agreement during Simon Busuttil’s time as leader was subject to a lot of ridicule and not just from Labour but from pretty much everyone. Unfortunately even though it was a nice idea it did not work.

    Reply
    1. All for one and one for all avatar
      All for one and one for all

      It did not work because your newly elected leader at the time, Adrian Delia, through a combination of arrogance, ignorance, ego-centricity and who knows by what induced, gave that agreement both middle fingers, effectively weakening his and his party’s position in parliament. Go figure!

      Reply
  3. Glenda avatar
    Glenda

    “The launch of the new party Momentum has only served to lessen the chance of electing a third-party candidate”

    You are wrong. The reason you say this is because you like ADPD. Articles like this one are harmful and simply add to the misinformation.
    In our voting system, no vote is wasted unless:
    people stay at home or
    they ruin the vote.
    The presence of momentum does not lower the chance in any way, in fact, it might help the odds by attracting people who like third party politics but don’t like ADPD or Ahwa Maltin.
    The reason this works is because we use STV. You can vote 1 to ADPD, 2 to momentum, 3 to PN, 4 Labour, etc. As an example, if a 3rd party candidate recieves 100 1s and 100 2s, that is still 200 total votes. Having less 3rd party candidates in a district won’t conjure up any extra votes!

    Do you understand? Or did I say something wrong?

    Reply
  4. manifhimx avatar
    manifhimx

    It is pathetic how the small parties attack the government of the day all through the legislation knowing that it is near to impossible that they can have a seat in parliament. But they do not applaud the PN who said that if in power they will amend this anomaly making it easier for small parties to have the real possibility of having a true chance to elect a seat in parliament in the future.

    Reply
    1. All for one and one for all avatar
      All for one and one for all

      PN says many things but the issue is one of credibility or lack thereof thanks to past performance on such issues.

      Reply
  5. Momentum gains more votes than ADPD but ADPD comes out stronger - The Maltese Herald avatar
    Momentum gains more votes than ADPD but ADPD comes out stronger - The Maltese Herald

    […] Momentum has continued to further divide the opposition against the Labour Party by providing an anti-feminist version of ADPD. Momentum gained more votes than ADPD, but Momentum leader Arnold Cassola had a poorer personal […]

    Reply

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