The people have overwhelmingly decided that they want the Labour government to continue to manage the country for the next five years. The work of government should continue in an almost seamless manner.

While at party level, the PL and the PN will conduct their post-mortem analyses to establish why the electorate decided the way it did, at government level, the first task of the new cabinet will be to engage in its own study to prepare the country to face the challenges of the next few years and beyond.

After the mellifluous rhetoric that characterised the election campaign of both the main political parties, a sincere economic reality check is now overdue.

Doubtless, the economic success of the last few years has convinced many voters that the PL administration can be trusted with the management of the economy for the next five-year term. The majority of voters tend to give more importance to how their personal lives are affected by the way the economy is performing, rather than to the more obtuse issues relating to economic vision and standards of governance.

Over the last two years, Maltese families and businesses have suffered severe disruption inflicted on the economy but, overall, they have been protected from the worst effects.

Taxpayer money has been used to shield them from financial destruction.

However, as with nearly all European countries, Malta is going to have to deal with further significant disruptive developments that add to the urgency of reviewing its economic model.

While the end of COVID is still not in sight, the hope that the various economic activities will start to achieve pre-pandemic levels is still just a hope and not a certainty.

Pre-pandemic challenges persist too. The tourism industry, for instance, still relies on the old model of attracting an ever-increasing number of visitors, even if the cost-benefit justification of this model is dubious. Escalating fuel and food price inflation due to the Ukraine war will add a further challenge to policymakers who have so far not come up with any credible action plan on how to make the industry more economically productive and sustainable.

The enabling factors that underpin the success of every economic plan need to be addressed with more determination. For instance, the underperformance of the education system received little, if any, attention during the election campaign.

It is arguably the most critical success factor. Education levels will determine whether the country can aspire to achieve more economic success, without relying too heavily on imported low-cost and even skilled labour.

The PL and the PN based their election campaign on long lists of promises, most of which can only be implemented through higher public spending. They also pledged not to increase taxation.

When all EU member states are fretting about the risk of spiralling inflation, food shortages and stagnant economic growth, the party in government gave the impression that we are in a bubble of prosperity that cannot be burst, while the party in opposition presented a vision of economic nirvana if only it was allowed to govern.

Some discerning voters did not buy these narratives. Many decided they had no faith in the promises of largesse being made by the two main parties.

There are, no doubt, several reasons for the relatively sizeable abstention rate among voters in this election. It should also be viewed as a bellwether, stressing the urgent need for a long overdue economic reality check.