A protest vote against the government or a vote in favour of Muscat?
The socialist parties have taken a beating all over Europe, and the right wing parties have come to the fore - that's interesting
Am I the only one seeing a contradiction here? This is from a report of Muscat’s victory speech, in The Times:
The people’s vote in the EP elections yesterday was a clear message to the Nationalist government that they will no longer allow anyone to take them for a ride.
“We are seeing the Gonzi government falling to pieces. Yesterday’s was not a vote of protest but a vote of choice in favour of Labour,” Dr Muscat said when addressing enthusiastic supporters celebrating in front of the party’s headquarters in Hamrun.
So is it a protest vote against the government, or a vote in favour of excellent Labour?
There’s lots to look at there. The whole of Muscat’s campaign was built on encouraging people to send a protest message to the government for a variety of grievances. By saying that this is what people did, he is undermining his own claims of victory and success.
I imagine that if I were leader of a political party, I would think it best if people voted for me positively, and not because they want to send a message to my rival. If I thought they were doing that, I would be worried. People send messages in unimportant elections. They are less likely to do so in important ones.
And in the clear light of dawn, it will become evident that Labour has quite a few protesters of its own: the ones who stayed home and didn’t vote. Not all 21% of them were angry Nationalists. When you’ve been in opposition for the best part of two decades, you’ve got a new leader and an earthquake going on, your party is militant and hungry for power, and you still don’t go out to vote….well, there’s something to chew on there.
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The right wing parties fared well in EP elections – You claim that Labour is a conservative party. It is in a certain way, but I hope that you are not putting the MLP in the same mould as the CDU of Merkel in Germany, the UDF in France, the Conservatives in the UK, PP in Spain, Pdl in Italy. These are serious centre-right parties with very serious and moderate policies.
[Daphne – The rise of right-wing conservation groups a mixed bag, from the parties you mention to a Czech party which called for a ‘final solution’ for gypsies until that particular advertisement was banned from the airwaves. The point here is that Muscat’s party is not progressive, but conservative. Hence, the return of old-style politicians and the blood-pumping speeches about the ‘middle-class’ – always the least progressive and most conservative social class of all, whatever the society.]
I would say that the PL goes beyond being simply conservative and is a reactionary “coalition”, especially in the way it looks at the immigrants issue. It is ironic that it has siphoned off most of the votes of AD which has consistently had the most sympathetic – if unrealistic – attitude towards immigrants.
Muscat has no idea what the progressive movement is all about – it is just a buzzword (one of the many) used in an effort to conceal the MLP’s past and to try creating a new space in the local political spectrum. What he cannot foresee it that these associations will assiduously haunt him form the first hours, should he be Malta’s next prime minister. The PN in opposition will have a field day.
I am sure he would have loved to rename his party the Progressive Party but with the acronym that would have materialised he just couldn’t……at least he realised that.
As the dust settles down…once again the evaluation of Gonzi is right on the mark.
I can’t help looking homewards, noticing a 7.1% vote in favour of the Piracy Party, giving them a seat in the European Parliament. Sounds like a joke, but is actually a very valid and interesting vote against recent Swedish legislation in favour of net control and against personal integrity.
The anti-EU folks seemed to have stayed away from the election altogether.
I doubt that the great majority of the Maltese cast their vote guided by ideological principles. Our voting tendencies are more aligned to “tribal” patterns that in a certain way are very similar to festa politics.
Indeed in many aspects the PN policies are so centre-left that it could hardly be said that it is a conservative party. The same can be said for Labour. A good example is the Joseph Muscat’s position on immigration. He is more similar to Umberto Bossi on this issue rather than to fellow Socialists. Muscat is a pure amoral pragmatist on almost all issues.
What really baffles me is the cognitive dissonace of the average Labour voter. How can genuine Labourites possibly be unaware of these blatant inconsistencies with his supposedly Socialist ideals?
“How can genuine Labourites possibly be unaware of these blatant inconsistencies with his supposedly Socialist ideals?”
People don’t always think analytically. Many don’t think at all.
There is a lot of “socialism” in extreme right-wing politics. Mussolini, for example, started out as a socialist and remained ideologically anti-capitalist and populist throughout his dictatorship.
And not to forget the German National Socialists, the NSDAP.
Re: Not all 21% of them were angry Nationalists.
I have always voted Labour except in 1998. I decided to abstain in this election because I am far from impressed with Muscat and his earthquake. I guess mine was a protest vote against the two parties- I’m totally fed up with both of them.
[Daphne – Why didn’t you vote for AD? This is a genuine question. I’d like to know. Also, I’d like to know more about what puts you off the Nationalist Party and what bothers you about Muscat ‘and his earthquake.’ I find it interesting that you should have posted this comment, and I think that you are one of a growing number of like-minded people.]
If I may intrude here, many are disappointed by both the bigger parties. Remember this was not a general election. Voting for AD is not an option for many, especially when one considers the fact that their leader appears to have an identity crisis. In addition, by definition AD are not even a political party.
In my opinion, the majority were protest votes since I think it is still too early to judge Muscat. Can anybody please tell me the number of people living abroad, came over to vote this time?
–The vote’s biggest loser is the center-left, with the Party of European Socialists (PES) winning just 159 seats, 56 fewer than in the 2004 election. “Tonight is a very difficult evening for Socialists in many nations in Europe,” Martin Schulz, lead candidate for Germany’s Social Democrats and the floor leader for the PES in the European Parliament, said on Sunday evening.–
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,629112,00.html
…a difficult evening only for socialist Socialists…!
Far-right and eurosceptic parties on the upswing:
http://www.france24.com/en/20090607-exit-polls-say-centre-right-parties-ahead-eu-vote-parliament-extremists
Muscat really seems to go with the flow…
I did not vote for AD because whenever I heard Cassola speaking on TV, he failed to impress me. And anyway, none of the AD candidates ever make it anywhere, so why bother?
I’m not put off the Nationalist party at all. I voted for them once in 1998. I do find it a bit hard to vote for them because most of my family vote for Labour.
I have to admit that I am not very interested in politics but I simply love reading your blog – besides your wittiness I find myself agreeing with what you say most of the time.
What I do not like about Muscat’s earthquake is that there is no earthquake at all, when there is a great need for one. Muscat is just talk, talk, talk. He says many nice things but as you rightly point out he’s just aiming to win the general election and one cannot believe what he says. He’s so ambitious that I’m sure he would not mind lying to get what he wants.
[Daphne – Thank you for replying.]
How can they be expected to make it anywhere if everyone has the same mentality and doesn’t vote for them? There were plenty of small parties in this election, you had a choice. Ok, leave out Lowell and Bezzina.. *shudder*
I think you just hit the nail on the head. Yes, of course he’s aiming to win the general election. And then what? I doubt whether or not he knows himself.
@ Andrea
It should have been quite entertaining for you in Germany yesterday.
Guido the Liberal Conqueror, Bisky the Neo-Left Winner, Greens still alive, Angela minus and Martin Schulz dazzled.
Frank Walter Steinmeier squeezed his way at Anne Will.
Turn-out in Germany was low at ca. 43%, whereby it was estimated that around 8 million social-democrat voters did not vote!
And still, one could also gather that the social-democrats in Malta had won comfortably.
n.b.: Anne Will presents a political programme every Sunday evening on German National TV.
Leo, I felt a bit lonely at the polls.
43%…mamma mia, I must be one of the last idealistic Europeans (literally, because of my very mixed European familiy background).
And don’t forget the Bavarian Christian Socialists and their ‘phoenix from the ashes’ PM Horst Seehofer.
What a laugh, indeed!
It was not really Horst but his fantastic Baron Guttenberg.
I do not like the PM of Bavaria but I know one of his state secretaries, Markus Sackmann, whose father incidentally was also a state secretary under Franz Josef Strauss.
Sarah, I agree with you 100%, you cannot be more sincere. Today I was arguing with a colleague, because she insisted that her only interest and satisfaction was the surplus of thousands they had on the blue party. Il-partit l-ewwel ukoll tahraqni, ahseb ara il-partit biss.