Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/747633
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2016 11 News Analysis aware that he could only win the 2013 elec- tion by shifting his party to the centre-right, Busuttil is now aware that he can only win by outflanking Muscat from the left. Ironically in his bid to entice businesses before 2013, Muscat tried to ditch the minimum wage is- sue. After toying in an interview in 2009 with the idea of a "living wage" which would only have affected businesses bidding for govern- ment tenders, Muscat publicly committed his party not to raise the minimum wage (be- yond COLA increases) during a convention in 2012. Busuttil and big business One may argue that circumstances have changed from 2012 and the economy is growing at an unprecedented rate, thus beg- ging the question: if not now, when? But Bu- suttil's decision is courageous in the sense that he has definitely broken with the tradi- tion that the PN represents the interests of the business lobby, which is entrenched in its opposition to any suggestion of raising the minimum wage. It may well be that Busut- til's decision may lose the party some support among the business community, especially among small businesses who employ a few workers on minimum wage levels. This may be why in the next weeks the PN is expected to launch a policy on the self- employed sector and aggressively reach out to small shop owners and small businesses in a bid to forge a new social alliance. It also suggests that perversely the cedoli scheme has earned the PN a sufficient war chest that makes it less dependent on further funding from big donors. Surely the scheme itself, which guarantees anonymity for party lenders, raises questions on obligations towards this restricted circle of people, but it may well have given the party greater financial peace of mind. For one can- not but note the PN's more belligerent tone with regard to issues like high-rise develop- ments – an issue which puts his party at odds with big developers – in the past weeks. Yet Busuttil is also being strategic. While courting environmentalists on high-rise and land reclamation, which pits him against big business, he is ambiguous on the develop- ment of an airstrip in Gozo, a district that may well determine his party's fortunes and where the promise of more development lures voters. While Busuttil may be criticised for op- portunism he has surely gone a long way in asserting his authority in the party. Gone are the days when Busuttil abstained in parlia- ment on civil unions, despite being himself in favour. Moreover Busuttil has shown no qualms in attracting and courting people, and welcoming people (Salvu Mallia and Caroline Muscat are cases in point) who publicly pro- fess left-wing and secularist views. Busuttil now has to match their expectations in terms of policy to set in motion a snowball effect which may attract others to follow their ex- ample. Busuttil's electoral calculus Truly for the first time Busuttil seems to know what he is doing. With surveys show- ing the party winning back half the switch- ers it lost in 2013, the party's only chance of winning in 2018 is to win a segment of tra- ditional Labour voters alienated by Muscat's pro-business mantra. Moreover Busuttil has also managed to pre-empt Muscat from taking ownership of the long due increase in the minimum wage by inserting the measure in a pre-electoral budget next year. In this way Busuttil is no longer showing his cards by seeking consen- sus within his own party before embarking on new policy ground. In this sense Busuttil is behaving more like Muscat pre-2013. For it was Muscat himself who ditched his own declared personal op- position to gay marriages and adoption to accept the whole package proposed by the gay lobby before the election. Was that op- portunism? It may well have been, but it has brought an epochal change in the country with regard to civil liberties. Is Busuttil in his own way paving the way for a new realignment of the party with an increasingly restless civil society? Busuttil knows that time is short and he has to tweet his way fast. For the first time Busuttil seems to know what he is doing. With surveys showing the party winning back half the switchers it lost in 2013, the party's only chance of winning in 2018 is to win a segment of traditional Labour voters alienated by Muscat's pro- business mantra Anti-poverty campaigners Leonid MacKay (Caritas), Charles Miceli, and Graffitti activist Erica Schembri announce the campaign for an increase in the national minimum wage. As Malta experiences bullish economic growth, the campaign is calling for a graduated, annual 3.5% increase in the national minimum wage over the next three years Minimum wage across the EU In January 2016, 22 out of the 28 EU member states (Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden were the ex- ceptions) had a national minimum wage. The countries are divided into three groups based on the level of their mini- mum wages. The first group includes countries whose minimum wages were lower than €500 a month; the second group comprises five EU Member States (Portugal, Greece, Malta, Spain and Slove- nia) and Turkey, each with an intermedi- ate level of minimum wages, defined for the purpose of this article as ranging from €500 to less than €1,000 a month; note that in all five of these Member States the minimum wage was in practice below €800 per month. The third and final group comprises seven EU Member States (France, Germa- ny, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Luxembourg) where the national minimum wage was €1 000 or more per month; this group also includes the United States.