Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547431
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2026 NEWS CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 The measures also introduce higher application and renew- al fees, as well as a €400 "in- frastructure contribution" that must be paid by new applicants and TCNs who are already in Malta and want to renew their residence. The measures would collec- tively represent a saving of €46 million, Clyde Caruana told parliament. The finance minis- ter later explained the measures would start to address overpop- ulation. The measures received wide applause from a public that has consistently identified over- population as a concern but a number of Labour-leaning commentators expressed dis- gust at the party's "dehuman- ising" and "us-and-them" nar- rative. A dehumanising narrative Lawyer Andrew Sciberras, the son of the late Labour MP and judge Philip Sciberras, said the measures reinforce the men- tality that foreign workers are "products". He described the narrative surrounding TCNs as "dehumanising". Sciberras clarified that it would be wrong to forget the country's strides on civil liber- ties, a cause championed by the Labour governments of the past 13 years. "But from the economic as- pect, the party is Labourite in name only, and that hurts me because I'm a Labourite," Sci- berras said. He appealed to the Labour Party not to forget its working class roots, noting that his concerns are shared by tra- ditionally Labour-leaning enti- ties such as the General Work- ers' Union (GWU). GWU's Secretary General, Kevin Camilleri had similar- ly described the measures as "purely populist", adding that "as a socialist and leftist un- ion, I can never agree with the measures against TCNs". Speaking about the econom- ic motives underpinning the measures, Andrew Sciberras noted that if the idea behind them was to reduce Malta's overpopulation, financial bur- dens could have been placed on employers relying on a constant flow of new foreign workers, not the workers themselves. From a legal standpoint, Sci- berras questioned whether the measures are in line with EU law, noting that the policy "is not only morally reprehensible; it may well be unlawful too". Attacking the new lower class Labour-leaning commenta- tor and former trade unionist Jeremy Camilleri was even less diplomatic in his critique of the measures: "They are totally an- ti-socialist and anti-left." "These workers aren't treated as human beings but as com- modities," he said. Camilleri noted that despite government's talk of addressing the volume-centric economic model, the components of Mal- ta's economy haven't changed. He added that if government wanted to reduce the number of new TCNs, it should have made it much more expensive for employers to recruit new workers from abroad. "Instead, we've loaded more burdens on the workers that are already here. We created a new lower class and now we're attacking it," he stressed. Camilleri told this newspaper he wishes the PL never uses the word "socialist" again when speaking to him before elec- tions, quoting from the party's anthem to show the irony of what the PL has become. "The anthem says, 'We em- pathise with the hungry and poor, our tears flow for the dis- tressed.' It can't be more leftist than that. The Labour Party should remember what it is and why it was created," he said. An us-and-them narrative Former Nisa Laburisti presi- dent Jennifer Tabone told Mal- taToday that the narrative sur- rounding the measures worries her much more than the meas- ures themselves. Tabone flagged the barrage of anti-foreigner and racist rhet- oric that followed the budget measures, noting, for instance, that many are misusing Dom Mintoff's "Malta first and fore- most," motto to fit their xeno- phobic views. "I'm afraid of the us-and-them narrative more than anything. I'm afraid of the far-right nar- rative because I know what happened in other countries," she said. In a post on Facebook follow- ing her comment to MaltaTo- day, Tabone said she was fed up with "those who spread racial hatred under the guise of pat- riotism." She insisted that non-EU workers come to Malta because the country needs them, clari- fying that they too contribute to the economy through taxes. "And then we have the cheek to treat them as second-class cit- izens." Where is the mia colpa? Former Environment and Re- sources Authority CEO and self-confessed socialist Ruben Abela pointed MaltaToday to- wards his public Facebook post when asked for comment. Abela noted the ongoing "un- controllable xenophobia insti- gated by those who are sup- posed to see that this behaviour is controlled". He insisted that people should think and ponder before taking to social media. "There are other, more decent ways of controlling overpopula- tion. The first step is to look in- to a mirror and say 'mia colpa'," Abela wrote, with reference to the rapid economic growth model of the past decade. 'We created a lower class, now we're attacking it' "The measures came as a surprise, leaving many of us uncomfortable because they targeted a vulnerable section of the working class," one minister said Left to right: Andrew Sciberras, Jennifer Tabone, Jeremy Camilleri, Ruben Abela and Kevin Camilleri The measures also irked several Labour functionaries, according to sources within the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity