A new daily current affairs show called Bil-Fatti, presented by Dorian Cassar and Claudia Cuschieri, has now taken its place. And its first two programmes have made a clear statement – this isn’t just Pjazza with a different name and hosts but a radically different kind of show.

Monday’s show started with a news bulletin and proceeded to a discussion on the Budget and the UN General Assembly. No current politicians took part in the debate, with the floor instead given to Marthese Portelli from the Malta Chamber, Josef Bugeja from the GWU and diplomat Alex Sciberras Trigona.

It then moved on to a discussion on extreme sports with endurance athletes Neil Agius and Fabio Spiteri, and an interview about the government’s family courts reform.

However, the interview was carried out with lawyer Sharon Mizzi, who worked on the reform. Neither Justice Minister Jonathan Attard nor Family Minister Michael Falzon, who launched the reform, made an appearance.

The show then closed with an interview with headmaster Deo Grech about the start of the scholastic year and a vox pop with students at Freshers’ Week.

Politicians were also absent from yesterday’s show. Bil-Fatti held a discussion on cremation with the parents of Jake Vella and the mother of Mirabelle Falzon, an interview with Leon Farrugia – the student who rewrote his thesis after his laptop was stolen –  and an interview with Housing Authority CEO Matthew Zerafa.

Labour seems to be responding to its shock result at the June elections, which evaporated the party’s longstanding 40,000-vote gap over the PN.

Many different interpretations have been given as to why the gap shrunk so much but it is clear that the election was an early warning sign that the PL had started to lose touch with society.

PL led an extremely partisan campaign, with the Prime Minister trying to portray himself as some kind of “anti-establishment” hero despite occupying the most powerful position in the country.

They also came up with bizarre declarations such as how Roberta Metsola was a warmonger who wanted to send Maltese children overseas to fight somebody else’s war.

This strategy might have worked in 2013, 2017 or 2019 but it seemed completely outdated in 2024.

Nowadays the media landscape has so many independent voices that it is much harder, if not impossible, for a few people to control the narrative, even if they are in charge of a political behemoth like the PL.

If people feel that ONE is treating them like children by acting as though the government can do no wrong, they will simply switch off and move on to something else; there are plenty of options out there. In this context, ONE will have to try something new or risk slowly falling into irrelevancy.

It’s early days yet but it seems as though ONE might have embarked on a new strategy – no direct criticism of the government but more open and policy-focused discussion and fewer vicious attacks against government critics.

This is over and above the constitutionality of party media stations, which will be subjected to a court ruling following a case filed in 2021 by Lovin Malta and former CEO Chris Peregin.