Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/208710
11 mt survey maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2013 he Budget and citizenship The survey also shows that nearly three in every four respondents want the list of new of citizenship published. This contrasts with the government's decision not to publish the names of persons who acquire citizenship through this scheme. Presently the names of people granted citizenship through naturalisation are published in the government gazette. But the same rules will not apply to this new category of 'golden passport citizens'. Significantly 72% of Labour voters openly disagree with the government's decision to keep these names secret. Moreover 95% of universityeducated respondents insist that these names should be published. Surprisingly younger voters are the least keen on transparency. Among fewer than 35-year-olds 17% agree with the government's non-disclosure policy. Middle-aged respondents are the most likely to favour a full disclosure policy. Majority favour citizenship for migrant's children In a survey held in September, a relative majority of 48% had favoured the automatic granting of citizenship to children of foreigners who were brought up and attended school in Malta. While Labour voters who are more likely to support the new citizenship scheme were largely opposed to extending citizenship to children of migrants brought up in Malta, Nationalist voters who oppose the sale of Maltese citizenship to richer people were more inclined to support the award of citizenship to this category. This suggests that the majority of the Maltese, especially Nationalistleaning respondents, are not averse to relax citizenship rules but are averse to the idea of selling citizenship to a select category of rich people. This represents an ideological reversal of roles, with Nationalist voters exhibiting a more left-leaning attitude to citizenship issues. Presently Malta presently practices a very restrictive policy on granting citizenship to people who have worked and lived in Malta for years. Naturalisation is the only avenue to citizenship for foreign residents without Maltese ancestry. Only 2,401 persons have acquired citizenship through naturalisation since 1991. A report by the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) citizenship observatory states that the acquisition of citizenship by naturalisation in Malta is overshadowed by the "singular non-reviewable discretion" which the home affairs minister enjoys in decisions on each case. This reflects the largely positive reaction of constituted bodies to the Budget, which includes the reduction of utility bills, free child car and fiscal measures benefiting part timers and high earners. Although the Budget retained the tax cuts for high-income earners proposed by the previous government, it was respondents with the lowest level of educational attainment who were most positive about the budget while university educated were the least positive. But even among university-educated respondents, 48% expressed a positive judgement on the budget. Methodology A total of 450 respondents were contacted in this survey. Respond- ents were contacted between Monday and Thursday. The question on the budget was asked to respondents contacted between Tuesday and Thursday. Respondents were randomly chosen from telephone directories and the results were weighed to reflect the age/gender balance of the population. The survey has a margin of error of +/-4.6%. Should citizenship be given to the children of foreigner who have been brought up and attended school in Malta be granted citizenship? (September 2013) PN voters 60.6 28.3 11.1 Yes No Don't know PL voters 40.5 50.3 9.2 All 48.6 41.1 10.3 Majority positive on Budget Nearly 53% of respondents have positively endorsed the Budget, claiming that this will have a positive impact on their life. Only 3.5% of respondents think that the budget has had a negative impact on them. But a significant one-fifth of respondents including 11% of Labour voters and 25% of switchers, were lukewarm expressing a "so and so" judgement while another 21% replied don't know. The high number of 'don't knows' could reflect the fact that a sizeable number of respondents had not yet assessed the Budget by the time they were contacted. In a clear indication that the Budget has been welcomed positively, only 6% of PN voters expressed a negative judgement on the budget while a fifth of PN voters claimed that it had affected them positively. Should the government publish the list of people who were granted citizenship after paying €650,000? BY POLITICAL AFFILIATION % PN 76.5 5.9 17.6 Yes No Don't know PL 72.3 12.1 15.6 Switchers 75 12.5 12.5 All 71.1 11.1 17.8 BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION % Yes No Don't know University 95.1 4.9 0 Post-Sec 73.3 11.7 15 Secondary 74 10.6 15.4 Primary 58.9 14.2 26.9 BY AGE % Yes No Don't know 18-34 1.2 17.3 11.5 35-54 76.4 9.7 13.9 55+ 68.7 10.5 20.8 How did the budget affect you? BY POLITICAL AFFILIATION % PN Positively 20 Negatively 6.2 So and so 49.2 Don't know 24.6 PL 78.1 0.8 11.7 9.4 Switchers 68.8 0 25 6.2 BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION: Positively Negatively So and so Don't know Simon Busuttil University 48.3 6.9 20.7 24.1 Post-Sec 50 0 28.6 21.4 Secondary 52.1 1.8 24 22.1 Primary 55.7 6.6 20.8 16.9