The year is approaching its end and it is time to take a look back as to what happened in the last 12 months with a view to what the future will hold.
It has been yet another eventful year for Malta, one that has unfortunately seen more scandals emerge for a government that appears in difficulty.
The results obtained in the June elections have given a strong indication that the people are not pleased with the way things are going. The Labour Party still won both elections – for Members of the European Parliament and local councils – but it has seen its huge advantage over the Nationalist Party cut down substantially.
The PN secured three MEPs while it also won a significant number of localities which had been led by Labour for the previous five years. We are still more than two years away from the general election, and so many things can surface to delineate the outcome. Apart from this, we all know that a general election is altogether a different story when compared to MEPs/local councils. But the public did send a strong message to Labour.
It has also given the Nationalist Party hope that it could turn things around. After June, the PN picked up courage and determination but, as we have said many times, it cannot just rely on Labour’s faults. The PN must also show it is ready to take over the reins of the country.
As for Labour, it does not seem to have learnt its lesson. Late in the year, we had the resignation of Minister Clayton Bartolo over a fresh scandal involving his wife, while calls for the resignation of another minister, Clint Camilleri, continue.
In the past year we also had the unprecedented arraignment of a former Prime Minister. Joseph Muscat has been charged with criminal offences in connection with the now defunct deal to transfer three public hospitals to a private company. Three former ministers and many others are in the dock with him. Muscat and Co maintain their innocence.
One of the three ministers who has been charged is Chris Fearne, who started the year as a Deputy Prime Minister on his way to becoming Malta’s new representative on the European Commission. Followig these developments, Fearne resigned and withdrew his candidature, and now sits on the back bench.
The problems we spoke about in 2023 continued to dominate the news headlines in 2024 too – over-population issues that have put more and more stress on the infrastructure, including traffic and health services; a construction industry that continues to wreak havoc while the authorities dish out more and more permits in spite of public protestations; industrial unrest in the education sector; disregard to environmental matters and a tourism industry that reaches records but fails to diversify itself into more quality than quantity.
We are sure that we will be speaking about all this (and more) in 2025 too.
In the meantime, since this is the last issue of The Malta Business Weekly for 2024, we wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a healthy 2025.
