Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1306522
9 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 NOVEMBER 2020 ANALYSIS rad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, part of a "corrupt establishment" leading Malta. Busuttil's assessment of the US election changed to one of "a vote against the establishment and the concentrated powers that favour the few" and invited the Maltese to take "lessons from the US election and vote to remove the establish- ment". But the kind of establishment which US voters voted against in 2016 was more akin to the PN's 25-year balancing act between cro- nyism and nominally adhering to institutional norms than to Mus- cat's governance which was based on getting things done even at the cost of thwarting the rules. Four years on, Busuttil's claim that "the establishment in Malta is the prime minister and the two people around him who were found to have set up secret companies in Panama," has been substantially vindicated. But his 2017 electoral campaign also weaponised unsub- stantiated claims on Egrant from Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog. Some aspects of the PN's campaign, like memes suggesting jail terms for the Muscats, was reminiscent of Trump's "lock her up" slogan. By projecting himself as an insur- gent candidate, Busuttil, a former deputy leader of a centrist party firmly entrenched in power net- works for 25 years, wore a shoe which did not fit him. It put his authenticity in question in an elec- tion where Labour pinpointed this contradiction, while presenting Muscat and his family as victims of a campaign orchestrated by an es- tablishment desperate on returning to power. In many ways, playing the anti-establishment card distorted the optics of the PN, attracting fire- brands like Salvu Mallia and Mar- lene Farrugia, while alienating sup- port among business owners keen on stability. Ironically, following his defeat it was Adrian Delia who played the anti-establishment card to secure his election in a contest among party members, following which he was keener on emphasising his par- ty's conservative values on issues like abortion while hitting out at the influx of foreign workers. This sometimes verged on the loony right, and internet-misinformation always lurked too close to Delia: like Edwin Vassallo sharing a "warning" about bananas injected with "blood containing HIV and AIDS" from his personal profile. By hitting hard on his own party's 'elitism', Delia further confirmed Labour's narrative. But adding credibility to that narrative were vocal exponents of the anti-Delia camp, illustrated some months ago by lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona's depiction of Delia supporters as "third-tier Nationalists". Ultimately, another outsider who is more in tune with his party's centrist identity dethroned Delia. Bernard Grech's budget speech indicated that his priority will be that of projecting his party as an alternative government. But can he achieve that in the absence of a populist appeal, which was absent in his first major speech? What is the establishment? While both major parties are part- ly right in depicting their adversary as being close to certain vested in- terests, "the establishment" is a very flexible term which can be comfort- ably used by anyone who feels ex- cluded, irrespective of other more real distinctions like wealth, power and status. In this way, building speculators who felt excluded from the restrict- ed circle of beneficiaries before 2013 could easily identify with Labour's anti-establishment mantra. Moreo- ver, determining who is part of the establishment is tricky, depending on who is writing the narrative. While a Trump supporter in the USA is likely to see the liberal media, environmentalists, the civil rights lobby and the bureaucracy as pillars of the establishment, left-wingers are more likely to refer to the power of big business and lobbies like the National Rifle Association. In a country like Malta, where ideological lines are blurred, both parties are likely to pick and choose, putting their adversaries in the es- tablishment camp and their allies in the pro-change camp. At the same time both parties are prone to be subjected to the pres- sures of lobby groups ranging from gun-toting hunters to powerful financial groups who seek to influ- ence policy-making to further their interests. In this context, as in the USA, culture wars on immigration and defence of hunting traditions may offer a distraction from much need- ed reforms addressing the need for a firewall between lobbyists and politicians, which came to the fore following the arrest of business ty- coon Yorgen Fenech and the fall of the Muscat government. swamp to berating the establishment