Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542822
The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday.com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY We hear how people want a third option in politics, but when you look at surveys, there is a far bigger cohort of people who say they do not want to vote, than there are people who say they want to vote for the third parties. This contrasts with you saying you [Momen- tum] have made progress… I think we both are right. Your surveys show that the third parties have the support of around 5% to 6%. This never happened before, as we would only get around 1%. We have made a difference. You are also right in saying 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. Another thing is the electoral system, which seems to work against the smaller parties, and has been tinkered with by the big parties in their favour, gives us a big advantage. We do not have one general election, but 13 different ones. You don't need a national quota. 2,500 people in one district can bring about the political revolution, and elect the third party. Will you have a candidate con- testing each electoral district? We are evaluating our options, as we need to see whether we will be concentrating on particular districts, or whether to contest across the country. Social media and media are crucial to a party's success. I think you have no problems with your image in terms of branding yourself. But we see little of Momentum out there speaking with people in the community. Do you not feel that this is a problem? Yesterday we were in Mosta doing what you are saying. We have published a newspaper of four pages, and we were disseminating it among residents and Momentum sympathisers. I think the image people involved with us are giving out there is a very good one. We have professionals, we have doctors, we have teachers… What I meant by image is, and sometimes this bothers me, but we see photos and videos of ministers and MPs knocking on people's doors… If I need to undergo an operation, I don't issue a press release to tell everyone I've been admitted to hospital. Our people don't go around parading their children in front of cameras. These shenanigans are not for us. But what if these 'shenanigans' elect you? Unfortunately, sometimes they do. There is a section of people that is affected by them. If the politicians and ministers do it, it must work. We saw the disaster in the wake of Harry… not Harry Vassallo, but Storm Harry; I think the government did well to advise people beforehand, and we saw the important work of people who work at the Civil Protection Department. But we don't go around parading in front of cameras, and every musician who sings a song, take a photo with them, and every footballer who scores a goal we go and take a photo with them—sorry but this is not our style of politics. We do evidence- based politics as much as possible. Our seriousness is reflected in the fact that in less than a year since we've been formed, Secretary General Mark Camilleri Gambin has been elected deputy-secretary general of the European Democratic Party. Let's talk policy. For everything that goes wrong in this country, be it overpop- ulation, infrastructure and I don't know what else, we blame the economic model, and even Momentum have spoken about it. What economic policy would you introduce? Rather than saying things are wrong, we are saying the way things are done need to be fine-tuned. Another priority in our economic policy is a decent wage for workers. We need to give dignity to our work. Recent events such as the pandemic and Storm Harry, showed how important jobs we tend to overlook are. You don't only deserve a good wage if you go to university, but even if you are sweeping the streets or a courier delivering food. Based on evidence, we want to raise the minimum wage to €1,500 a month. So, under a Momentum gov- ernment, there will be no big shakeups to the economic mod- el, just fine-tuning? If a decent wage is paid, you will have Maltese people returning to the jobs they do not want to do right now. We need to calm down the economy, it's overheated. How do you plan to calm it down? Are we stopping con- struction? We have to calm down development… But would you be proposing a moratorium on development? On high rises for sure. We need to stop for two years so that we take stock of the situation and see where and whether we need them. We also need to create a buildings register. We don't know what we have in the country, and the government does not have visibility of what land it owns, and this needs to change. On taxation government seems to have gone down the route of cutting taxes. Do you agree with it? …It's good government introduced these tax-incentives. But what about single people? Don't they also need to live? Are they also not contributing to society? Government will argue it is there to incentivise couples to have children… So, government thinks that because I'm single, I will go around looking for a woman who wants to have children? Or better yet, I'll find someone with the surname Abela so on the voting list I'm first. Aren't these all gimmicks? 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 JANAURY 2026 INTERVIEW