The naked lies

Adrian Delia wrote an opinion piece in the Times of Malta entitled ‘The naked truth’ (December 6). In reality, it should have read ‘The naked lies’. Like the typical right-wing populist, Delia starts his diatribe by claiming he is being censored and that the government has turned its guns on his right to speak out. He informs readers that his arguments and data are not being challenged, as his facts cannot be disputed by anyone.

So, I decided to look at all the claims he made and show them for what they are. That said, he is free to make whatever claims he wishes but those who care about the truth have a duty to question and contest statements they believe are misleading.

Let us start with his first claim: “Can anyone dispute the fact that our population has increased by a staggering 180,000 over the past few years?” Eurostat shows that our population in 2024 was 563,443. Therefore, according to Delia, a few years ago it was 383,443. According to Eurostat, the last year when our population was less than this was 1997, or 28 years ago.

There you have it, the typical extreme-right fake news approach. Taking something that is true, say, that the population has increased, and turning it into a crisis by exaggerating it, to frighten people. Twenty-eight years is a generation, not a few years.

The second claim is that the government has not invested enough to cater for this population increase, for instance by spending more on roads. I looked at Eurostat to see how much capital expenditure there was on transport since 2000. The figure is €1.8bn, of which €1.3bn has been since 2018.

When the population was Delia’s preferred size, back in 1997, the government spent €68 per person on capital projects on transport. Today, we spend €278 per person. The population has increased but spending has increased fourfold per person.

Another ‘naked truth’ exposed by facts as a naked lie.

The third claim is that the average property price in Malta is now €414,000 while the average wage is €24,000. The idea Delia wants to peddle is that housing is now unaffordable.

Again, I did what any rational person would do. I went on the Eurostat website and, hey presto, I downloaded their house-price-to-income ratio, which compares the average house price to average income. For 2015, it has the value of 100, now it stands at 89. Which means that incomes have risen by 11% faster than the average house price.

Can one man get so many economic facts wrong in just one article?- Alex Muscat

Do you know what the house-price-to-income-ratio was back in 2008 when no one was complaining of ‘chilling’ foreigners and overpopulation? 126! Which means that, back in 2008, when houses were much cheaper to buy, they were 42% less affordable than they are now. Why? Because household income was low compared to house prices.

What does Delia have wrong here? Both his average property price, which is pure sham, and his average wage figure. Just go on the Eurostat website and there you will find that the average wage is €33,500. There you have it, yet another ‘naked truth’ exposed as a naked lie.

Shall we go on?

His next claim is that foreigners are flooding our roads, stating that 7,000 new licences were granted in just 10 months, more than half of them to foreigners.

Actually, there were fewer than 2,500 new Category B licences granted to foreigners, of which 35% were to EU citizens, who, in all fairness, cannot be stopped from driving here anyway.

So Delia starts with a seemingly scary 7,000 figure, when, in reality, just over 1,600 new licences went to third-country nationals, less than a fifth of his claim. Moreover, he fails to mention that the number of new licences has fallen by a quarter since 2021.

Then he tells us that the government debt is €14 billion, when the latest figure is that it is €11 billion, a mistake of nearly 30%.

After that, another gem – the claim that the Celtic Tiger economy, Ireland, crashed in 2008 because of migration, “sinking like the Titanic”.

I looked at the European Commission’s latest forecast to try to understand the depths to which the Irish economy has sunk. Instead, I found out that the commission expects the Irish economy to grow by a whopping 10.7% this year, with a national debt of just 33% of GDP. Eurostat reports that wages in Delia’s Titanic economy are €61,100, the third highest in Europe.

Seriously, can one man get so many economic facts wrong in just one article?

Is this really the person that the Nationalist Party wants to propose as Malta’s next minister of finance? Sadly, that is the only naked truth.

A

Alex Muscat is a Labour MP.