Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542822
A year ago, Partit Momentum was born. The brain child of veteran politician Arnold Cassola, the party looked to build on the momentum of Cassola's successful European Parlia- ment election campaign in 2024. From the group of five people who initially came together to organ- ise the party, Momentum now has around 100 members. For Cassola this signals that Momentum is on the right track. I meet Cassola at his Swieqi home and when I broach the subject of Mo- mentum's relatively poor showings in MaltaToday's surveys, he is unfazed. "Your surveys show that the third parties have the support of around 5% to 6%. This never happened be- fore, as we would only get around 1%. We have made a difference," he says. Cassola insists there is a willingness among the electorate for an alterna- tive away from the two-party system. "There is a large group who are saying they will not vote… for now. That is the first step, as they are showing they are not satisfied with the two-party system, but are not convinced of the third parties yet. It is our job to convince them. That is the biggest catchment area we have," he says. Fledgling parties and opponents of the two-party system regularly argue the electoral system is geared to keep the Nationalist and Labour parties in power. But Cassola, while accusing them of tinkering with the system to better favour them, says it also allows small- er parties to enter parliament. "We do not have one general elec- tion, but 13 different ones. You don't need a national quota. 2,500 people in one district can bring about the po- litical revolution, and elect the third party into the House," he insists. Discussing policy, he proposes a higher minimum wage at €1,500 per month and argues for a fine-tuning of the system to make it "fairer". "What has ruined the country is the lack of planning. For example, foreign workers. It is easy to blame them. We need them in a number of sectors, but with a clear plan and clear management," he tells me. Arnold Cassola: 'It only takes 2,500 people to start a political revolution' Momentum was born a year ago and despite surveys showing it still lags far behind the major parties, its chairperson Arnold Cassola believes the f ledgling party is on the right track. He tells Karl Azzopardi how he wants to shake up the country's political landscape. 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 JANUARY 2026 INTERVIEW