Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/952911
16 News maltatoday SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2018 A recent Eurobarometer survey showed a general mistrust in po- litical parties among the Maltese population. The latest survey showed 21% saying they tend to trust parties, still higher than the EU average of 18%, but far lower than the 30% trust level registered in May 2017. Judging by the social media out- rage at the decision of MPs to award themselves a pension after only serving five years, anger at what the Italians call the "politi- cal caste" is growing. Yet despite this general mistrust in Maltese political parties, third parties still fare badly in all opinion polls which show AD and PD garnering a combined support of between 1% and 3%. A similar distrust in the political system resulted in the rise of new parties in Spain where the liberal Citizens Party is now leading the polls following the earlier rise of Podemos on the left. Italian elec- tions last week catapulted the 5- Star Movement (M5S) to become the country's largest party after less than a decade in existence after garnering the support of a third of voters. Why does this not happen in Malta? A question of tradition Sure enough Malta lacks a plu- ralistic political tradition as Italy and Spain have had for decades. Malta has not elected a third par- ty contesting on its own steam to parliament since 1962. Political loyalties in Malta run deeper than in Italy even if the results of the past two elections suggested con- siderable shifts from the Nation- alist Party to the Labour Party. In contrast Italy has a long tra- dition of new political parties be- ing formed as others disappear. Some, like Forza Italia, even man- aged to win power in the past, by filling the gap left by traditional parties swamped by the tangen- topoli scandal. Other smaller parties – like many born out of the Christian Democratic diaspora – take a free ride on larger parties by becom- ing their satellites. Others owe their existence to fusions from splits from other parties. For example, the left-wing Li- beri e Uguali that barely scraped through the 3% threshold is in it- self the result of the fusion of at least three movements splitting from the PD and two other move- ments outside the PD. This was not the case with the winners of last week's election, the Lega and the M5S, both of which have grown organically from insignificance to become Italy's two largest parties. The Lega was born from the ashes of the first republic in the tumultuous tangentopoli days as a separatist movement. The M5S was unleashed by the Vaffanculo Day (Fuck-off Day), a day of public mobilisation aimed at preventing the nomination of Parliamentary candidates with a criminal conviction. Unlike the Lega, M5S has so far refused alliances with other forc- es. While the Lega has grown in the shadows of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia only to gradually out- grow him, M5S has thrived on post-ideological ambiguity. In this way it can take votes from both left and right by sending mixed issues on migration and civil liberties issues while appeal- ing to left-wing voters through an environmentalist and anti- cor- ruption stance at local level. Un- derlying this ambiguity were the movement's decision to abstain on civil unions and to oppose a proposed law to grant citizenship to migrants born in Italy. Don't blame the electoral system Another reason why Malta is different from Italy is its electoral system. Basically the only chance third parties have to elect an MP on their own steam is by winning approximately 16% in one district. This would require an epochal change of heart in the electorate. The only alternative is to take a free ride on the list of a major party as the PD did successfully in the last general election but at the cost of alienating the host party. Yet in Italy the M5S has not just won seats through seats allocated through proportional represen- tation but has also made a clean sweep of seats in all Italy south of Lazio, winning all the first past the post seats in Sicily and Sardin- ia. Moreover, the latest electoral law – through which a third of seats are allocated to candidates elected through the first past the post system – was meant to pe- nalise M5S and favour the two ri- val coalitions. Rather than simply grumbling against the electoral system, M5S adapted itself to this new reality. Capturing the national mood M5S twice managed to capture the national mood, first by capi- talising on popular anger at cor- ruption in the final days of the third Berlusconi government – eclipsing the left in the process – and then by re-inventing itself as a catch-all party in its opposition to centre-left governments. By remaining ambiguous on thorny issues, M5S could attract voters from both sides. While the scruffy Beppe Grillo represented the first rebellious phase, the poster boy Luigi Di Maio represents the sec- ond phase which sees the party gaining institutional respectabil- ity. Sure enough the chickens are bound to come home to roost. Italians already had a taste of the movement's pitfalls whenever its exponents were elected to lo- cal office as happened in Rome, where corruption and bad gov- ernance remained endemic. But this was not enough to kill the appetite for change, and losses in the north and central Italy, par- ticularly in cities like Rome, were more than compensated by a clean sweep of votes in the south of Italy. The Lega's Matteo Salvini has shown a similar ability to cap- ture the national mood by ditch- ing Umberto Bossi's separatism and reinventing the League as an anti-immigrant and eurosceptic party modelled on the National Front. Our own dose of Grillo One may find a few similari- ties between the antics of Grillo's From 'Vaffa' to victory: Could it happen in Malta? In less than a decade, the Italian 5-Star Movement grew from a quirky protest movement led by angry comedian Beppe Grillo to become Italy's largest political party and the dominant force in the south. Can this ever happen in Malta? JAMES DEBONO probes the issue JAMES DEBONO TOP: Joseph Muscat has so far managed to make the average working-class voter richer and happier LEFT: One may find a few similarities between the antics of Grillo's movement and those of PD MP Marlene Farrugia Next year's European elections represent a major test for Maltese third party politics Beppe Grillo and Luigi di Maio: Italian elections last week catapulted the 5- Star Movement (M5S) to become the country's largest party after less than a decade in existence after garnering the support of a third of voters. Why does this not happen in Malta?