Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1507984
OPINION 10 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 20 SEPTEMBER 2023 Judging by how some local news- papers (looking at you, Times of Malta!) report on matters con- cerning Malta's relations with the EU: anyone would think we were living in one of those South American 'telenovelas', that my grandmother loved watching on Italian TV in the 1980s: stuff like 'Sentieri', 'Beautiful', 'Tempesta D'Amore', or 'Quanda Si Ama'... Now: in those days, I used to have lunch with my grandmother around five or six times a week; and because she had a portable TV in the kitchen... for almost an entire decade, my daily lunchtime sound-track sounded a little like: 'Saremo insieme per sempre! Nessuno ci potra mai condividere, NESSUNO!' 'Come hai potuto tradirmi, dope tutto cio' che abbiamo vissuto in- sieme?' 'NO! Non mi devi lasciare! Come potro' vivere, senza di te?' 'Non posso supportare piu' questo dolore! La devo amazza- re! Anzi... DEVO AMMAZZARE TUTTI!! (Dove' il mio fucile, ca- zzo? Ah, eccolo qui!) ADESSO, FACCIAMO UN MACELLO!!! BANZAAAIIII!!!!' Honestly, though. And then they tell us that cartoons like 'Gol- drake', or 'Jeeg Robot D'Acciaio', were bad for children 'because they promote gender stereotypes, and encourage violent, aggressive behaviour...' But that was just an aside. Point is, I spent around 20% of my entire life exposed to a per- manent backdrop of 'Argentini- an-soaps-dubbed-into-Italian', for around an hour every single day. And trust me: after that long, you learn to start recognising the basic 'soap opera' formula, pretty much everywhere you look. So back to the example I started out with: Malta's press coverage, of the country's evolving relations with the European Union. Last week, The Times report- ed on the latest Eurobarometer Survey (September 12), under the headline 'Maltese trust in EU di- rection drops by 40%'. "In total, only 26% of Maltese say that things are going in the right direction in the EU today. This figure stood at 65% in a similar Eurobarometer survey held in the summer of 2022." The Times also adds: "Malta's confidence in the EU's direction was previously drastically higher than that of any other EU mem- ber State"... but stops short of specifying that, back in 2016, lo- cal support for the EU had stood at a staggering 84% (implying that 'Maltese trust in EU direction' has actually dropped by almost 60% – not 40% – over the last seven years.) Another thing the article omits to mention (understand- ably enough, I suppose) is that while Malta's faith in the EU has 'reached the EU average'... it is still a heck of a lot higher than most other EU member states. In Cyprus, for instance 'trust in the EU' stands at a mere 16%.... and it's only one percentage point higher in France: one of the founding members of the Union. The second-lowest are Greece, Austria, and Belgium [!], with only 19%; while Germany, Swe- den, Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Italy, Latvia and (un- surprisingly) Hungary, all languish somewhere between 20 and 25%. Simply put: 'trust in the EU's di- rection' has plummeted across the board, of late; and not just here in Malta. But of course, you'd never guess that just from reading any of the press reports (and even less, by following Ursula von Der Leyen's 'State of the Union' speech last week). Because rather than just re- porting the facts, strictly as they emerge: most newspapers always tend to colour their own articles, with a gushing shade of Bar- bie-pink... 'Amore!' The Times' next report, for in- stance, was entitled: 'Why is Malta falling out of love with the EU?' And while I can easily imagine someone singing those lyrics, to the tune of Elvis Presley's 'Fallin' In Love' [Note: you'd be surprised how well they actually scan]... let's just say it was another song that started playing in my head, when I read that headline. Sorry, but – as the legendary Tina Turner once sang - "What's love got to do with it, anyway?" (Being, after all, just a 'second-hand emo- tion'?) And what on earth makes The Times think that Malta was ever even 'in love' with the EU, to begin with: when, in actual fact, we were arguably the single most 'reluctant' of the new members, to join in the 2004 enlargement? As I recall, Malta joined the EU on the strength of a 2004 referen- dum, which gave the 'Yes' a major- ity of just 52%. In other words, a staggering 48% – by far the highest percentage in Europe – actually voted NOT to join, 20 years ago. And there was certainly 'no love lost' between the two sides, during that campaign. A few members of the General Workers' Union, for instance, had decided to make a public show of their true feelings for the European Union... by set- ting EU flags on fire, while wear- ing balaclavas! (Which – let's face it – could have caused 'Al Qaeda' problems, at the time...) THAT, I suppose, is an indicator of just how 'in love with Europe' this country really was, in 2004... and yet, it is evident that some people out there – including not the just The Times, and other 'pro-EU' papers; but also, the 26% who still believe in that institution, in spite of everything – who genu- inely interpreted that referendum result as a case of: "We will be together forever! Nobody will ever come between us! NOBODY!" And of course, if you start out on that (manifestly flawed) premise... it follows (illogically) that any 'de- cline', in that sentiment of 'True Love', will be interpreted as a case of... betrayal, no less! 'But how you could you leave me, after all we've been through together? (And after all the bil- lions of euros that the EU invest- ed, to ensure our eternal, undying 'love and gratitude'... FOREVER?) And yet, and yet... there is noth- ing remotely 'romantic' – or even 'melodramatic' – about the reality of Malta's changing attitudes to- wards the EU. This, by the way, emerges even from the rest of the same Eurobarometer survey (which asked a few other ques- tions, you know, apart from 'Do you love the EU? Or do you love her not?') For instance: when asked wheth- er they trusted the EU, as a bastion of 'Social Equality and Welfare'... 61% of Maltese respondents said 'Yes'. Likewise, 63% believe the EU embodies 'Respect for fun- damental rights'; 60% see it as a purveyor of 'Tolerance, and openness to others'... and weird- ly, 51% even trust the EU when it comes to 'showing solidarity with other countries' (despite the fact that Malta has been complaining about the lack of EU solidarity on migration, for literally decades). In other words: the majority of Maltese citizens still 'trust' (if not exactly 'love') the EU, for all the 'fundamental values' that it is supposed to embrace. And there certainly doesn't seem to be any problem, with the EU's 'direction' on any of those areas. The question therefore becomes: why, then, does such a large ma- jority openly disagree with the What's 'love' got to do with (Malta's plummeting EU relations?) Raphael Vassallo