Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1518324
14 SURVEY maltatoday | SUNDAY • 31 MARCH 2024 JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Trust Barometer: Abela leads Grech ROBERT Abela has clinched his highest trust rating since Febru- ary 2023 with the March Malta- Today survey recording a score of 45.9%, up 4.8 points from last month. But at 24.2 points the gap be- tween the leaders has remained the same as last month because Bernard Grech has also seen his trust rating increase by five points. The higher trust scores for both leaders come in the wake of a 9.8-point drop in the percent- age of respondents who trust neither leader. The trust boost for both lead- ers coincides with increased po- litical mobilisation as the June election deadline approaches. The gap between the two lead- ers had already increased from 14.4 points in November to 16.4 points in December and to 24 points in January. But despite the boost over last month's poor rating of 16.7%, Grech still lags behind and has simply reverted back to the same trust rating he registered back in December. Moreover, Abela is now back to the trust levels he enjoyed be- fore March 2023 when his score dropped to a record low of 34.2% following a damning court judg- ment that annulled the Steward hospitals contract. The percentage of respondents who trust neither leader cur- rently stands at 32.4%. Grech faces trust issues with PN voters The survey shows that the per- centage of PN voters in 2022 who distrust Grech has dropped from 51% last month to 44.6%. Grech is now trusted by 55.4% of PN voters. But Grech's popularity among his voters pales in comparison with Abela who commands the trust of 87% of PL voters in 2022, up from 74.6% last month. Considering that 82% of PL voters in 2022 will vote again for the PL next June, this means that Abela is five points more popular than his party in this cohort. In contrast Grech is 27.6 points less popular than his party among the cohort of 2022 PN voters. Moreover, Grech still makes very few inroads among PL voters. Only 1.9% of PL voters in 2022 trust Grech more than Abela while 2.7% of PN voters in 2022 trust Abela more than Grech. And crucially Abela is more trusted by non-voters than Grech. While only 4.7% of cur- rent non-voters trust Grech, 22.6% trust Abela. This means that as things stand now Labour has better prospects of recover- ing support in this strategic cat- egory than the PN whose leader remains very unpopular among non-voters. Moreover, in a clear indication that Abela is already recovering lost ground among disgruntled Labourites, the percentage of Labour voters in 2022 who trust neither leader has dropped from 23.1% last month to just 11.1% now. Distrust of leaders highest among middle income earners As was the case last month the highest percentage of respond- ents who trust neither of the two leaders is found among those earning between €2,000 and €3,000 a month. In this category, a remarkable 57% trust neither of the two leaders. Grech who is trusted by just 14% in this cohort is clearly fail- ing to make inroads among this disgruntled category in which Abela still leads by 15 points. Moreover, in another sign of Grech's unpopularity in the up- per middle class, only 7.6% of those earning between €3,000 and €4,000 a month trust him. Grech only manages to beat Abela among those earning more than €4,000 where he is trusted by 48.9%. In an indication of Labour's appeal among both low income earners and more affluent cat- egories Abela scores his high- est scores among those earning between €3,000 and €4,000 a month (61.2%) and among those earning less than €1,000 (52.2%). Abela also leads Grech in all educational cohorts, including the post-secondary educated where Abela now leads Grech by 24.2 points. The highest percentage of peo- ple who distrust both leaders is found among the tertiary edu- cated (48.2%). In this category Abela leads Grech by 7.6 points even if as a party the PN leads the PL by 13.7 points in this cat- Trust: 2022 voters Trust Barometer