Opposition leader Adrian Delia has been given a boost in the arm heading into the new year, as MaltaToday’s latest survey found he is trusted by 60.7% of PN voters.

Asked to choose between the country’s two main political leaders, 51.2% of survey respondents chose Prime Minister Joseph Muscat while 24.7% chose Delia. And while the Opposition leader still has a veritable mountain to climb to catch up to Muscat, his trust rating is significantly better than the measly 17.8% he registered in MaltaToday’s survey in November.

Delia’s boost in popularity is practically solely due to people who voted PN in last year’s election warming up to him. Indeed, he registered a 60.8% trust rating among PN voters, compared to 44.7% last month.

MaltaToday’s trust barometer – December 2018

MaltaToday’s trust barometer – November 2018

It comes in the wake of public attempts by the PN leadership to heal the party’s internal wounds, which were amplified during last year’s leadership election and the dramatic fallout over the Egrant inquiry earlier this year. Vocal critics of Delia have been given more space on the party media, and in return have publicly lent their support to the Opposition leader.

However, while this strategy appears to be reaping fruit among PN voters, Delia does not appear to be making any inroads whatsoever among Labour voters. A whopping 94% of PL voters said they trust the Prime Minister more than the Opposition leader while only 0.3% of PL voters said they plan to float to PN, compared to 2.7% of PN voters who plan to vote PL.

Indeed, the survey indicates that Labour will crush PN if an election is held tomorrow, winning 48.3% of votes, compared to the PN’s 29%.

MaltaToday’s survey also makes bad reading for Malta small parties, with Partit Demokratiku only polling at 0.9% and Alternattiva Demokratika at 0.7%.

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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]