Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1104601
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 APRIL 2019 NEWS JAMES DEBONO OVER the past few days the PN has system- atically embarked on denigrating Labour us- ing the 'socialist government' moniker in its daily statements. At the same time the party regularly repri- mands Labour for being too close to big busi- ness interests, which in itself indicates that Labour is anything but socialist. But who exactly do PN strategists think they are fooling when they attack Labour for being socialist? The problem for the PN is that its claim that Labour is socialist is simply not grounded in reality. In reality Labour is today very similar to the PN in the 1990s – a big tent centrist party. While Muscat is sometimes more neolib- eral than the PN when it comes to spurring economic growth by moving the goalposts for big business, he is a bit keener on wealth redistribution than the PN. Overall no big change. In fact, in left-wing quarters Muscat often faces criticism for not being socialist enough. It's a criticism which makes Muscat himself uneasy to the extent that last Sunday, he dedicated a part of his speech to defend his socialist credentials – insisting that econom- ic growth is vital for delivering his "socialist method". So why is the PN attacking Muscat for being socialist instead of trying to exploit discon- tentment by those who feel that Muscat has gone too far in his pro-business policies? Sure enough the PN has been very critical of land deals accommodating big business. Yet it flip-flops when Labour veers a bit to the left when proposing reforms to the rental market with the aim of protecting tenants. Perhaps what the PN has in mind when lambasting the government's socialism is the association between 'socialism' and 'big government'. In fact the socialist label is of- ten included in criticism of the government's institutional shortcomings, like those identi- fied in the Greco report. But in so doing the PN ignores that these shortcomings date back to independence and outlasted several PN led administration. Such criticism may strike a chord with a segment of M.O.R. voters who recoil at Muscat's strongman appeal and Labour for further blurring the lines between state and party. But still, has this anything to do with so- cialism? Scandinavian countries which have a long tradition of social democracy are also associated with very high standards of gov- ernance. What the PN has in mind is not European socialism but Malta's brand of Mintoffian- ism, which occurred in a post-colonial con- text when Labour over-reacted at a time where it was pitted against powerful forces like the Catholic Church and the traditional ruling classes. The target audience of the PN's anti-so- cialist campaign is a declining cohort of old- timers for whom socialism evokes images of thuggery and violence which characterised Malta in the 1980s. The downside of this is that Labour has moved with the times while the PN seems to keep hanging on to fading images of history. What does this have to say about the PN's appeal among millennials? Does socialism carry so many negative connotations among younger generations? Truly rampant consumerism, individual- ism and 'amoral familism' militate against any socialist awakening and this is even re- flected among Labour's own young crop of activists, busy celebrating the best of times and the likes of Konrad Mizzi, despite being outed as owners of offshore companies. In this context, Labour's only claim to radical- ism comes in the shape of its substantial pio- neering reforms in the civil liberties camp. On the other hand it is also possible that in a bid to dig new roots, some young PN ac- tivists may be clinging to a neo-conservative worldview influenced by the resurgence of the populist right, in full contrast with their own party's Christian democratic roots. Yet on a mass level, one suspects that Malta's young political class is still living in a post-ideological age, where left and right carry little meaning especially amongst those busy exploiting the opportunities offered by the economic boom. But this period may well be nearing its end, especially among those at the receiving end of the property boom: the ones paying higher rents and losing open spaces around them. Young people – especially the civic-minded – also live in a world where left-wing ideals are making a comeback among millennials in the shape of what have become global icons like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (pictured, right) and Greta Thunberg… socialism may well carry more positive connotation than ever before. Amidst concern on growing inequalities and environmental degradation in Mal- ta itself, the spectre of socialism may well be slowly making a comeback with groups like Moviment Graf- fitti becoming reference points for a left-wing opposition to Muscat's government. Labour – which could soon elect a new lead- er – may well realise that it is time to swing the pendu- lum slightly back to the left. In this sense the PN risks being overtaken by history once again. Delia's red scare: Why does the PN call Muscat's Labour 'socialist'? Reds under the bed? Those on the left are not convinced pro-business Muscat is the socialist enemy the PN is trying to make him out to be Amidst concern on growing inequalities and environmental degradation in Malta itself, the spectre of socialism may well be slowly making a comeback The far-right and anti-immigrant parties so far have registered no support in polls, while past MEP elections never saw these parties surpass the 3-point mark. JAMES DEBONO and MATTHEW VELLA ask why Malta remains immune to a European trend, which has seen the populist right establishing itself as a mainstream force HISTORICALLY the best result for a far-right party in a Maltese election was the 6,761 votes gained by Norman Lowell's Imperium Europa in the 2014 MEP election. Yet even in the favourable conditions of the Europe- an elections, where voters can vote for any candidate without any fear of reper- cussion on who gets elected to government as happens in general elections, vot- ers have largely shunned the far-right. Even less ex- treme anti-immigrant and conservative groupings have fared even worse than the self-avowed racists and apologists for Nazism like Lowell, as he so eloquently explained earlier in the week on F-Living free-for- all. Why is this so? The lack of a charismatic leader In these elections the Maltese right-wing vote will be fragmented with the Moviment Patrijotti Maltin (MPM), a bunch of Islamophobes and cultural conservatives competing with the more extreme Norman Lowell, who is a self-avowed admirer of the genocidal Adolf Hitler. Also standing as an inde- pendent is Stephen Florian, a former exponent of the MPM, who had been forced to resign from a university lecturing post after indulg- ing in a gratuitous attack on a transgender activist. And then appealing to the conservative Christian vote is Ivan Grech Mintoff's Al- leanza Bidla. Maltese far-right expo- nents tend to be either too extreme and brutal, as re- mains the case with Lowell, or too crass to be taken se- riously as has been the case with the MPM, whose ban- ner includes a bus with the Maltese flag emblazoned on its side carrying Indian workers clambering on the vehicle from all sides. So far, the Maltese right- wing lacks a charismatic leader like Matteo Salvini who manages to appeal to both conservative tradi- tional voters and to more angry anti-establishment voters. But surely the problem runs deeper than that, for in 2009 Azzjoni Nazzjonali still flopped despite being led by former PN firebrand Josie Muscat and property magnate Angelo Xuereb. This suggests that the tar- get vote of the Maltese far-right still finds itself at home in the big traditional parties. Too conservative to experiment with third parties The fact that someone as extreme as Norman Low- ell has outperformed con- servatives with less extreme views may be symptomatic of a political system where mainstream voters tend to shun third parties and only people with more radical views tend to defy the du- opoly. One reason for this is that apart from fiery rhetoric, far-right parties have noth- ing to offer in terms of pa- tronage – no goodies to give out. Moreover, the segment of the population disposed to vote for third parties is very limited, even in MEP elections where less than 6% have voted for third par- ties in the last decade. Norman Lowell has man- aged to capitalise on the ambiguity created by his eccentricity, attracting the vote of those who would not swear allegiance to his movement but are disposed to blow a raspberry on what they perceive as the estab- lishment. Lowell is that raspberry. Xenophobes still find a home in the PN and PL Both major parties man- age to project themselves as big tent parties, harbour- ing within them attitudes which right-wing voters find attractive. Even un- der Simon Busuttil, the PN