Two-thirds of Maltese don’t trust political parties and fewer than half trust either the government or Malta’s parliament, according to a new Eurobarometer study published on Friday.
But these figures nevertheless mark a sharp rise on a previous edition of the study published earlier in the year.
The survey’s findings generally show signs of an uptick in people’s attitudes towards the state of the country, reversing a negative outlook that had set in over the previous two years.
Just under half now say that the country is headed in the right direction, 13 percentage points more than in the Spring, with a third saying they expect the country’s situation to be better over the next year (15 percentage points more than the previous survey).
Meanwhile, there has been an increase in the number of people who say the situation in Malta is good (56%), that Malta’s economy is good (68%), and that their household’s financial situation is good (84%).
And while trust in politics remains low, this has also seen an upturn.
The number who say they trust political parties has risen by 17 percentage points to reach 34%, while trust in the government has also risen by 11 percentage points to reach 47%. And people appear to be more satisfied with democracy in Malta than they once were, rising by 14 percentage points to 54%.
Maltese less likely to understand how EU works than any other country
The survey also sheds light on Malta’s somewhat schizophrenic attitude towards the EU.
While the overwhelming majority (91%) say that Malta has benefitted from EU membership, and only a quarter say Malta would be better off outside the union, two-thirds of Maltese also believe that Malta would carry more weight globally if it were no longer in the EU.
But the survey finds that the Maltese have a particularly poor understanding of how the EU works, with fewer than half saying they know how the union functions, lower than any other European country.
Nevertheless, the Maltese broadly trust European and international institutions, with the notable exception of NATO, which is distrusted by two-thirds of Maltese. Only the Cypriots and Greeks are more sceptical of NATO than the Maltese, the survey finds.
Trust in written press rises but fake news still a problem
The number of people who trust the written press has risen by 12 percentage points since the Spring, although just over half (51%) still say they tend not to trust the written word.
Overall, trust in Malta's written press remains the lowest in Europe, 20 percentage points lower than the EU average.
Other forms of media fare little better. Trust in TV and radio also register scores far below most other European countries.
The survey suggests that trust in the media is tainted by what people perceive as political influence.
Fewer than a quarter (23%) say that Malta’s public service media is free from political influences, while less than a third say that the media provides information free of political or commercial pressure, both amongst the lowest ratios in Europe
While trust in traditional media remains relatively low, even fewer say they trust websites (38%) or social media (21%), with over two-thirds saying that information about politics gleaned from social media should not be trusted.
Four in every five say they frequently come across news that is misleading or outright false, far above the EU average of 70%, with a similar number saying that fake news is a problem in Malta.