Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1347847
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 MARCH 2021 MALTATODAY SURVEY ROBERT Abela's trust rating has slumped to its lowest ever at 39.8% as the Prime Minister continues to shed support in the MaltaToday March survey. This is the first time that the trust rating of a Labour leader has fallen below the 40% mark since October 2017. Abela loses almost two points since last month's survey at a time when the country is battling a surge in coronavirus infections. However, Opposition leader Bernard Grech fails to capital- ise on the Prime Minister's poor performance, posting a trust rat- ing of 34.8%. The findings show that Grech is practically jogging on the spot after losing 0.3 points since last month's survey. The trust gap be- tween the leaders now stands at five points as a result of Abela's losses, rather than Grech's gains. The Prime Minister's slump is reflected in the result o b t a i n e d by the La- bour Par- ty, which scores 39.2%, it's worst result since 2017. The Nationalist Party's support also reflects its leader's static performance, ob- taining 32.6%, a decrease of 0.4 points since February. The number of people who trust none of the two ma- jor leaders now stands at 18.9%, an increase of almost five points since last month. Abela enjoys a higher trust rat- ing than Grech among men and women, and all age groups apart from pensioners. Among those aged 65+, the PN leader obtains 45.8% against Ab- ela's 43.2%. But in the youngest cohort (ages 16 to 35), the La- bour leader surges ahead with 36.2% versus Grech's 25%. On a geographical basis, Abela leads in Gozo, the South-East, the Southern Harbour and the Western regions. Grech trumps the Prime Minister in the North- ern and Northern Harbour re- gions. Gozo and the Southern Har- bour give Abela absolute major- ities with 50.4% and 51.3% re- spectively. Methodology The survey was carried out be- tween Monday 1 March 2021 and Friday 5 March 2021. 649 respondents opted to complete the survey. Stratified random sampling based on region, age and gender was used to replicate the Maltese demographic. The estimated margin of error is 4.9% for a confidence inter- val of 95% for the overall results. Demographic and sub-group breakdowns have signifi- cantly larger margins of error. Robert Abela Bernard Grech Neither Don't know 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 39.8% 34.8% 18.9% 4.9pp 6.5% 7 Mar 2021 PP change 7 feb 2021 Between Robert Abela and Bernard Grech, who do you trust the most? Full demographics comparing trust between Abela and Grech ALL PL now PN now No vote PL 2017 PN 2017 Didn't vote 2017 Male Female 18-35 36-50 51-65 65+ Primary Secondary Post-sec Tertiary Gozo Northern N Harbour S Eastern S Harbour Western 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 39.8% 34.8% 18.9% 6.5% 86.2% 11.4% 91.2% 7.2% 14.1% 81.0% 70.9% 9.8% 14.9% 71.9% 20.6% 23.0% 15.4% 55.0% 6.6% 39.1% 33.3% 20.7% 6.9% 40.6% 36.6% 16.8% 36.2% 25.0% 28.3% 10.5% 37.4% 32.2% 25.7% 41.8% 34.4% 17.7% 6.1% 43.2% 45.8% 46.3% 43.3% 41.8% 39.9% 13.0% 43.9% 23.7% 25.1% 7.4% 30.8% 28.7% 31.6% 9.0% 50.4% 28.5% 16.0% 23.5% 39.5% 26.8% 10.2% 31.5% 40.7% 23.8% 48.0% 28.9% 16.8% 6.3% 51.3% 30.1% 11.7% 7.0% 42.5% 34.7% 14.4% 8.4% Robert Abela Bernard Grech None Don't know Which political party would you vote for if The latest MaltaToday survey shows that Robert Abela's trust rating remains jammed on reverse, while Bernard Grech continues to jog on the spot. KURT SANSONE reports Is COVID taking Labour and Abela into 'red zone?'