MaltaToday has published the findings of its first political survey of the year and they don’t make good reading for Opposition leader Adrian Delia.

With only three months to go before the European Parliament election, the Labour Party is cruising ahead of the Nationalist Party, which is still struggling to retain its own voters, let alone start eating into the PL’s votes.

Here are six key findings from today’s survey which reflect the extent of the gap between Malta’s political parties.

1. Labour is almost twice as popular as PN

At this rate, it seems clear that the biggest question for the upcoming election is just how large the scale of Labour’s victory will be. Asked who they intend to vote for, 42% of respondents opted for PL, 24.4% said PN, while 19.3% said they don’t know.

If Prime Minister Joseph Muscat does end up running for the spot of EU Council President, as has been heavily rumoured, then he is on course to leave Malta fresh off the back of the largest electoral victory in the country’s political history.

2. Adrian Delia has lost serious ground among PN voters

The aftermath of Adrian Delia’s fallout with Nickie Vella de Fremeaux appears to have seriously dented his popularity

Delia was given a shot in the arm in December, when a survey showed he was trusted by 60.7% of PN voters, an increase of 16.7% in a single month. However, the following month was characterised by infighting in the Nationalist Party, with Delia’s wife Nickie Vella de Fremeaux accusing him of domestic violence and several private messages and video clips making the rounds on WhatsApp.

Today’s survey shows this brief crisis has left its mark on Delia, with his trust rating among PN voters slumping back down to 47.4%.

Meanwhile, 9.3% of PN voters said they trust Muscat more than they trust the Opposition leader.

3. Joseph Muscat remains incredibly popular in his own party

There was an outpouring of support among PL voters for Delia last month, with several PL exponents accusing his internal critics of using a delicate and personal situation to overthrow a democratically elected leader. However, this sympathy has not translated into electoral support, with Muscat still enjoying the support of a whopping 96.2% of PL voters and only 0.3% of PL voters saying they prefer Delia to the Prime Minister.

4. Muscat is incredibly popular among women

Labour’s strategy of encouraging female participation in the workforce and opening the party up to women appears to be reaping fruit, with 60.3% of Maltese women saying they trust Muscat and only 14.1% saying they trust Delia. While Muscat’s trust rating among men is a more humble 50.6%, this is still double Delia’s rating of 25.1%.

5. Delia is seriously unpopular among middle-aged voters

Muscat trumps Delia in every age bracket, but nowhere is the gap more blatant than among people aged between 36-50. While the Prime Minister is trusted by 57.2% of these voters, the Opposition leader is only trusted by 11% of them.

6. Delia didn’t even register in Gozo

Victoria, Gozo: Photo: bellaragazzadenis (Instagram)

In what is probably the most shocking finding of the survey, Delia didn’t even register among voters from Gozo, with 68.4% of Gozitans saying they trust Muscat and the remainder saying they either trust neither of them or don’t know who they trust more. Gozo is a traditional PN stronghold but its citizens’ allegiances have shifted to PL since 2013, and this latest result will certainly sound warning bells at Dar Centrali.

What do you make of these survey findings?

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]