Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1025219
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 SEPTEMBER 2018 7 NEWS ANALYSIS sentiment, which goes beyond what he may be wishing for. 4. Pressure will increase on Delia to come up with solu- tions which businesses may not like It is well and good to criticise an economic model based on cheap labour. But will Delia lurch to the left to address the problem posed by rising rent and property prices? Is he will- ing to close the tap on planning permits, which increase the demand for temporary low- paid foreign workers? Or will he lurch to the right and close the door on migration. Will he commit his party to exit the Schengen area to stop Italy's asylum seekers from working here? And how will his migra- tion stance go down with the party's backers in business, particularly the construction industry which relies on this source of cheaper labour? 5. Muscat may still be per- ceived as the best choice on migration issues even among those who are worried When flying the cosmo- politan flag, Muscat may be more concerned with fuel- ling demand for property than with cultural diversity. He is also a good salesman for his Dubai model, which has made a number of people who traditionally supported the PN, richer. Moreover, his decision to block Maltese ports to NGOs who are sav- ing lives in the Mediterranean was a reminder of his abil- ity to perform balancing acts. While Muscat has repeatedly succeeded in brokering deals among a number of EU mem- bers to take responsibility for migrants rescued in the Medi- terranean, with Malta accept- ing responsibility for some of them, he balanced this by arresting the Lifeline captain and impounding rescue ves- sels. With a few exceptions, the PN's leadership has been silent on these two hallmarks of Muscat's policy. But does this mean that the PN should remain silent on migration issues? There are obvious risks for mainstream parties who turn migration into their major issue. This is because talk on this issue can easily slip out of hand espe- cially when regurgitated by less politically sophisticated supporters in the lower rungs of the party's pecking order. While Delia may have been careful not to cross the line, some of his supporters on the social media are less re- strained. This is reminiscent of what happened to the La- bour Party when it also toyed with the migration issue. Under Muscat Labour had successfully weaponised the migration issue on the eve of the 2009 MEP elections even at the cost of stirring racist sentiments among a section of its supporters. Muscat himself never insti- gated racism but his harsh stance on the EU's inaction on migration was often taken by supporters as a licence for xenophobic attitudes. Yet on that occasion the issue was simplified to one on who has the 'greatest balls' to extract the best burden sharing deal from the EU. The debate was dumb but circumscribed. The issue, now conflated with identity, religion, demo- graphics and economics, is far more complex and toxic. It is an issue that surely needs to be talked about. The Maltese have had little say on what economic model their country should adopt and Muscat has no interest in stirring such a debate. But the risk is that migration will be politically weaponised again, this time in a bid to save the PN and its leader from a humiliating defeat. The risk is a race to the bottom among candidates, which will leave little space for rational debate. Expect more photos of Afri- cans sleeping on benches and candidates touring Marsa. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt tough migration talk The risk is that migration will be politically weaponised again, this time in a bid to save the PN and its leader from a humiliating defeat