Election Desk: Two vacancies, twelve different people

Welcome to the Election Desk. This is where we round up the major headlines of the last 24 hours, together with some of the more light-hearted and funnier sides of the campaign trail.

The Gozo hustle

Rumours have been whirling of a jobs bonanza in Gozo, and it seems those rumours are about half-right.

Several Gozitan business owners told Times of Malta they are losing staff to government recruitment as ministers gear up for the election. Some reported seeing long queues outside the Jobsplus office in Victoria last month and took this as a sign that ministers are handing out jobs like pastizzi.

However, the reality is more complex. A lot of the “government jobs” being boasted about are positions with private contractors who handle subcontracted government work. The minister just connects the voter with a contractor who needs staff, but when the worker realises that the contractor actually needs them to show up and do things, they quit after a few weeks, reopening the vacancy again.

One government source described a surreal situation where a contractor who needed two security officers ended up hiring 12 different people over a few months to fill those same posts. While it seemed like 12 new jobs, in reality, it was the same vacancy over and over again.

Sources said the fiercer competition in Gozo isn’t between Labour and the PN but between Labour’s own heavyweights on the ballot: Gozo and planning minister Clint Camilleri, health minister Jo Etienne Abela, and agriculture minister Anton Refalo are all competing for the same Labour votes and allegedly poaching each other’s supporters.

When asked to comment, all three ministers sent back an identical reply. They did not address the job allegations directly and pointed instead to Gozo’s economic growth. Specific questions on new recruits and private contractor workers went unanswered.

Back to business

Monday morning brought Abela and Borg face to face for the fourth time in a week, this time at a Malta Chamber debate in front of Malta’s top business representatives.

We finally have a price tag for one of the manifestos. Abela said Labour’s programme will cost €6.3 billion over five years, funded entirely by economic growth. No new taxes, not even on businesses, he promised. The PN’s manifesto cost remains unknown.

Borg repeatedly cast the PN as the party that gets out of businesses’ way, handing them the rod and leaving them be. Labour, he argued, was building dependency on handouts. Abela countered by leaning into business jargon, like “JVs” for joint ventures or “CAPEX” for capital expenditure.

The sharpest exchange came on transport. Abela mocked the PN’s metro proposal as built on AI-generated images. Borg fired back by saying Abela’s own finance minister refused to sign off on Labour’s proposed transport vision.

Chamber CEO Marthese Portelli had opened proceedings by urging both leaders to ditch the sloganeering and get realistic in the campaign’s final week. As expected, both promptly described their own proposals as the more realistic ones.

Debate moderator Rachel Attard, flanked by Robert Abela and Alex Borg. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Drop the bass, drop the ballot 

In the final week of the campaign, both parties decided that the path to victory is paved by DJs and enhanced with bass drops.

Labour has booked Dutch electronic music legend Armin van Buuren for its final mass meeting at the Floriana Granaries on Thursday. The PN is countering with Belgian DJ Dimitri Vegas at its “Mass Festival” at the Luxol grounds in Pembroke the same evening. Malta has somehow turned its final campaign rallies into a Tomorrowland warm-up.

It’s a significant shift from 2022, when COVID restrictions meant both parties kept things considerably more low-key. Labour’s youth wing is also hosting a separate free event at Valletta’s ditch on Tuesday, featuring DJ Vanco. This is being promoted as an “after party” following Abela’s speech at 8pm.

Left to right: World-renowned DJ Armin van Buuren is set to headline at PL's final rally, while DJ Dimitri Vegas will perform at the PN's "Mass Festival". Photos: Facebook

Concrete fears

Ten environmental NGOs issued a joint statement on Monday urging voters to send a strong signal on planning and environmental protection at Saturday’s election.

The groups warned that some elements of the controversial planning reform bills tabled last year have survived in Labour’s manifesto, and that Abela’s recent remarks about local plan revisions being “overdue” set off alarm bells. They were more positive about PN proposals to entrench the ODZ boundary and give the Environment and Resources Authority veto power over ODZ development, but still cautioned that these remain aspirational without the right people appointed to implement them.

On Comino, the NGOs said Labour made no proposals, while the PN pledged a public consultation. Momentum proposed strict regulations and ADPD wants a total development ban. The groups said they were disappointed that no consensus was reached to protect Malta’s most well-preserved Natura 2000 site.

Planning reforms proposed last year appeared to have put Local Plan revision on the agenda, the NGOs said. File photo: Matthew Mirabelli.