The protest held outside court on the day Joseph Muscat was arraigned undermined the Labour Party’s image and authority, former prime minister and MEP Alfred Sant said in a reaction to Saturday's surprise election result.

In a reply to Times of Malta questions, the former Labour leader who has just retired from politics, listed the demonstration as one of the reasons why the party’s majority plummeted in the European elections.

“It did not help at all that during the election campaign, Labour activists were called out on the street in front of the law courts to protest but not by the Labour Party, which during campaigns should be the only body to call for public protests by Labour,” he said.

“This served to undermine the party’s image, authority and backing among its ‘soft’, even not so soft supporters, as well as others.”

Ex-PL leader Alfred Sant

Sant said voters had delivered a “clear warning” that they do not like aspects of current governance.

This might be because they feel the party has sidelined their needs and instead prioritised the needs of PN-leaning people whom it wants to attract, or because they do not support the style of government which “in their view reflects obduracy, dilettantism, lack of transparency, in your face clientelism”.

“A significant conclusion is that clientelism has become ineffective, indeed counterproductive,” he said. On Sunday, the party saw its 42,000 vote lead cut down to under 8,500 votes, in a shock result that stunned PN and Labour officials alike.

The party also lost the fourth MEP seat it had won in 2019.

Labour insiders who spoke to Times of Malta say that things could turn even bleaker, as they fear the party might do even worse in the local council elections as counting begins for these at 2pm on Wednesday.

Warning to PN, independents

But Sant did not rush to congratulate the Nationalist Party either. Although he acknowledged it did well, “this was not the performance of an opposition party going places”, he said.

“One could argue that all the PN needs to do is let the Labour administration slowly unravel, which is highly hypothetical, and I think far-fetched. Also, the PN could equally unravel again in the meantime.”

He also heavily criticised third parties and independent candidates for operating like “cabals of well-meaning amateurs” who stand no chance of getting a seat in any election if they pursue their current strategies.

“The election confirmed that independents and third parties (excluding from this the extreme right and the ultra-conservatives) stand no chance of making parliamentary inroads if they continue working through (Arnold) Cassola-like figures or through separate houses run as cabals of well-meaning amateurs, who seem to have little direct contact with a wider public,” he said.

“They might drain votes away from the main parties, but one doubts whether this can ever deliver parliamentary seats, in Europe or elsewhere.

"To really have an impact they need to organise as a broad church supporting some major ideas (like a combination of green, secular, liberal progressive), with leading personalities (not prima donnas) trained to deliver messages and a grassroots organisation, no matter how primitive, but which would need to be built from the ground up.”

He also highlighted problems with the way in which the election campaigns were run, saying they might have become too predictable in how they are staged, like television shows, which have come to depend on television.

“They are well-liked by the politically obsessed, off-putting for many of the rest,” he said.

“Apparently social media are making up for the slack but with what effect apparently nobody knows, given the amazement with which the election results were greeted by the opinion pollsters and by both the major political parties.”

The 76-year-old economist, intellectual, writer and long-time politician has just stepped down from political life after a run of 10 years as one of Malta’s most popular MEPs.

He had announced he did not intend to seek re-election to the European Parliament more than a year ago, saying it was time to make space for new talent.