A half-admission, two manifestos and a €2.8m question

Both sides were busy on the pledges front during week three of the 2026 general election campaign.

Labour launched a 263-page manifesto on Friday at a general conference, with over 1,000 promises in 24 chapters. Major pledges include a €1,000 a year "super bonus" for workers, six months of government-paid parental leave, a referendum on euthanasia, and a rapid transit system that does not quite qualify as light rail.

The PN was busy too. Last week, its headline promise was five years of tax-free income for workers under 35, at a maximum of €50,000 a year. 

Its biggest talking point, though, was its pledge to first-time property buyers: a PN government will cover half your mortgage interest for ten years, Alex Borg said. Although it sounds generous, the numbers quickly got complicated.

The €2.8 million question

On Thursday, Alex Borg said the first-time buyers scheme would cost €2.8m a year. That figure immediately raised eyebrows and Labour's Finance Minister Clyde Caruana held a press conference to say the PN's own numbers suggested only 750 people would benefit before they run out of money.

The next day, the PN said the €2.8 million was only for September to December 2026. The true cost is €10.5 million in the first full year, rising to €60.5 million annually by 2035 or an average of €37 million a year in that period. The PN estimates around 900 first-time buyers will benefit over the first four months, and around 2,500 new buyers a year will qualify going forward.

‘I meet everyone’

The week's most quotable moment came when Times of Malta asked Robert Abela whether he had met anyone accused of money laundering or contraband, after he claimed that the PN's proposed fuel terminal at Hurd's Bank comes from “Malta's biggest fuel smuggler”.

Abela did not deny the meeting. Rather, he linked it to his “constituency work” and said: “I meet with everyone, including prisoners. What counts is what you do after the meeting.” He did not name the smuggler, and skirted questions about who else was present.

Earlier in the campaign, Borg filed a sworn affidavit denying he had ever met anyone involved in criminal activity about the fuel hub, and invited Abela to take his report to the police commissioner.

Delia vs the guards

Meanwhile, the week's most viral moment belonged to Adrian Delia. The PN candidate turned up at Karin Grech Hospital with his phone in hand, two days after the government announced a €1.5 billion plan to rebuild the same hospital, but was stopped by security guards.

The resulting video racked up thousands of views. Delia said he was there to expose the government's lack of credibility on the project. Labour called it a political stunt. The General Workers’ Union condemned “arrogant behaviour” towards workers doing their jobs.

The manifesto that snuck in

Momentum also launched its manifesto last week: 259 promises, built around four pillars, after consultations with between 60 and 100 people on each topic. Its headline pledges include subsidised shared taxi rides from €2, a property speculation tax on vacant homes from the second property onwards, a two-year moratorium on permits for buildings of ten floors or more, and a "decent living wage" of €360 a week phased in over four years.

The party estimates its transport plan could cut travel times by 60% and reduce private cars to 200,000 by 2033. A 'Momentum government' would spend €234 million a year on fare subsidies to keep prices low.

On the gender front

A smaller story that deserves attention: of the 162 candidates on the ballot, 46 are women. That’s actually a slight improvement on 2022, but the increase is almost entirely down to Labour, which has nearly doubled its female candidates from 16 to 28. Meanwhile, the PN is fielding four fewer women than last time, dropping from 17 to 13. When asked, Alex Borg said there was no real reason for the shortfall. Momentum has no women candidates.