I wanted to write a long effortpost about Maltese politics, but I kept putting it off, thinking the election was going to take place later and, well, I'm not going to do it now. So here's the short version. Apologies if it sounds a little like a tourist guide.
Malta has a fascinating history. A redoubt of crusader knights, an European Christian country that speaks a language close to Arabic and yet used to be conflicted about whether to speak English or Italian, a French and British colony, a Meditarranean island that nearly became a part of United Kingdom, devoutly religious yet surprisingly liberal - it's a strange place.
Maltese politics stopped being a game of the elites in the interwar era, when the people were divided in two camps: a pro-Italy and pro-Italian one, strongly Catholic, authoritarian and uncomfortably close to fascism; on the other hand, a pro-Britain and pro-English one, vaguely secular and uniting liberals, trade unionists and socialists. The former camp was discredited and finally banned during World War 2, when Malta became a key staging point for Allied war effort in the Mediterranean and resisted months of Axis bombing.
After the war, the pro-Italian group transformed itself into a pro-independence one. They still kept many of their old tenets: clericalism, conservatism, a hint of authoritarianism. These were the people who founded the modern Nationalist Party. They were opposed by those who wanted Malta to become an integral part of the United Kingdom. This camp was split in two groups: trade unionist Labour Party that exists to this day, and liberal middle class Strickland Party that later dissolved. When I say Nationalists were clerical, I mean it in a sense not far off today's Iran: Maltese clergy regularly intervened in politics. At the peak of the integration-or-independence debate, they declared that anyone who voted for Labour commited a mortal sin, would be excommunicated and could not be buried in a Catholic cemetery. It was perhaps thanks to this that Nats finally won out. On 21 September 1964, Malta became an independent country.
Enter Dom Mintoff, the most fascinating and most HIGH ENERGY figure of Maltese politics. A lifelong Labourite, he cut his teeth on opposition to the Church, fighting for workers' rights and agitation for integration into UK. He had a brief and turmultous term as PM during the colonial era, but in 1971, he led Labour to its first electoral victory in an independent Malta. Once in power, this time securely, Mintoff set about to implement a quite radical socialist programme, nationalizing key industries and creating an extensive welfare state.
There was a less glamorous side to it, though - the cornerstone of Mintoff's economic policy was import substitution. Imports were severely restricted and the country was supposed to produce many categories of goods on its own - from toothpaste to color TVs. Of course, Malta is a small, overpopulated archipelago with zero natural resources, next to no industry and a population of, back then, 300 thousand, so this went about as well as you could expect (
the made-in-Malta Desserta "chocolate" seems to have traumatized an entire generation - read the comments for stories of smuggling Mars bars like they were cocaine).
In foreign policy, Mintoff's Malta was at first non-aligned and hosted meetings between USA and USSR. Later he shifted markedly towards allying with anti-USSR Communist regimes: Romania, Libya - to the point Arabic was made a compulsory subject in schools - and... North Korea:
Ma tagħmlu xejn mal-Perit Mintoff — Don't lay your hands on Architect MintoffTowards the end of 1970s, Mintoff was becoming more authoritarian and tempers were running high. After an alleged attempt on Mintoff's life, a Labor mob ransacked and burned the offices of a Nationalist newspaper. After Prof. Edwin Grech led a doctors' strike against Mintoff's policies, his daughter was murdered by a letter bomb. In 1981, Labor won the election despite Nationalists winning 51% of the vote. Nats refused to take their seats in parliament and the government was paralyzed. This spelled the end of the Architect - in 1984, he resigned and Labour replaced him with Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
In 1987, Nationalists returned to power under Edward Fenech Adani. They were, however, a very different party from the old cabal of fascism-curious priests of 1960s. Their government reoriented Malta towards Europe and the West, rolled back old protectionist economic policies and started the process to enter European Union. Some of their market liberal reforms, especially the introduction of VAT, were unpopular and in 1996 they were defeated by Labour under Alfred Sant. His government rolled back some Nationalist reforms and suspended Malta's EU application (it's interesting how the formerly integrationist Labour had become more nationalist than Nationalists), but collapsed after only two years thanks to, guess who, our old friend Dom Mintoff. After half a century in politics, he was still set on remaining an MP and criticizing whoever led his party at the time. In 1998 he decided to retire at last and a headstrong man that he was, he wanted to exit with a bang. He voted against Sant's government on a vote of confidence, which led to a new election. Labour lost, but so did Sant, and that's all that mattered for Dom.
From 1998 to 2013, Malta was ruled by a fairly unremarkable Nationalist government. The country finally entered the EU and its economy boomed thanks to tourism and, yes, turning itself into a tax haven. In 2013, Labour returned under Joseph Muscat. Compared to the days of Mintoff, the party is now unrecognizable: they further liberalized the economy and encouraged things like selling passports to unsavoury oligarchs. High economic growth and socially progressive policies (like same-sex marriage, introduced in 2017, even though Malta legalized divorce only in
2011) proved to be a very popular mix: in 2017, Muscat was reelected with 55%, a landslide by Maltese standards. Will the liberal Labour magic work again? We'll see in an hour.
Even today, Maltese politics keeps many of its idiosyncracies. It's one of the few countries in the world with a real two-party system: there's Labour, there's Nationalists and there's people who are happy if they get 1%. It also has an extremely polarized, or rather pillarized society: this isn't the case as much as it used to be, but there are red and blue newspapers, red and blue TV stations, red and blue cafés, even red and blue mobile phone operators. People still largely vote by family tradition. A visitor with some knowledge of local politics (hi!) will notice the omnipresent party locales and party flags (there is, or at least was, a focking huge PL flag in Marsaxlokk whose only purpose seems to be photoboming tourists).
Malta has a population of only half a million. Everyone knows everyone, their political sympathies and whether they are One of Us or One of Them. Knowing this, you won't be surprised that Maltese politics is extremely dirty. One thing has changed, though: the rampant corruption and nepotism isn't as accepted as it used to be. It's why the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the investigative journalist Logical mentioned in his post, was such a political shockwave - it even led to resignation of Joseph Muscat.
There's a lot to write about Malta's political divide, but I'd rather leave it to people who know more:
Turns out this might actually be an effortpost
