Malta Still Split On Egrant: Half The Country Unconvinced That Panama Company Does Not Belong To Muscats
A slight majority of Maltese voters are still having trouble believing the magisterial inquiry that cleared the Prime Minister and his wife from claims they owned a Panama company called Egrant.
According to a scientific survey by Lovin Malta, 50.5% of respondents answered ‘no’ (36.8%) or ‘I’m not sure’ (13.7%) when asked whether they were convinced that Egrant does not belong to the Muscats.
On the other hand, 49.45% said they believed the findings of the inquiry.
Asked what they thought before the inquiry was released, 42.6% said they believed Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Egrant story, 18.1% said they were unsure and only 39.3% dismissed it as false.
This means there has been a shift in public opinion of around 10% since the Egrant inquiry’s summary was published on July 22nd: from 39.3% who believed Muscat’s version all along to 49.45% who were convinced by the magistrate’s conclusions.
The Lovin Malta survey, carried out in partnership with research company Esprimi, was conducted between Thursday 26th and Friday 27th July, using a mix of online and telephone interviews. A base of 1,100 responses were used to sample the electorate.
The survey found more skepticism coming from Nationalist quarters, where only 7.47% believed the inquiry’s findings. A whopping 74.23% said they were not convinced while 18.3% said they were still unsure.
Still PN voters do report a slight shift from before the election when 86.9% thought Egrant belonged to the Muscats, 11.1% were unsure and only 2.1% did not buy the story.
There was a stronger shift among Labourites. While almost a quarter of respondents said they had believed (6.1%) the Egrant story or were unsure (16.9%) before the inquiry, now these have fallen to 10.39%.
The Prime Minister, who previously had convinced 77.1% of PL voters, now enjoys the confidence of 89.61% on this issue.