An explosion at the Lourdes fireworks factory in the Ta’ Qadi area of Naxxar, near Salina, shook nearby buildings and shattered windows. No people were killed. A nearby farmer and his son were injured. Political leaders offered sympathy and thanked first responders. The explosion soon appeared in international news.

Several animals were injured and killed in the blast, including race horses, and concerns were  raised over the contamination of food and feed.

Veronica Camilleri, who has resided in the area for over five decades, described the damage to her property to Amphora Media.

“Hinges and hooks flew off the doors, windows burst open, and anything on the windowsill was destroyed. My husband and I had minor scratches on our arms from the debris. We also had our boundary wall dislodged.”

“With every noise I hear now, I jump out of my skin. My husband, if he wakes up at night, can’t get back to sleep.”

She says she has filed a police report and started an insurance claim. Malta Today has reported that over 50 police reports of damage to livestock and property have been filed. The MaYA Foundation, which represents young farmers, has invited all affected farmers to reach out: “no one should feel that they have to face these challenges alone”.

This is not the first time the site has blown up. And in the years since the last explosion, the factory has been built partly without sanction, expanded with the regulator’s approval, and supported by public money to improve safety.

Who runs the factory?

Ghaqda Piroteknika 11 ta’ Frar San Gwann, a registered voluntary organisation, has declared that the factory in the Ta’ Qadi area is theirs.

Planning Authority filings indicate that it is built on government land and used by the San Gwann fireworks association. The Malta Pyrotechnic Association says farmers made the land available to fireworks enthusiasts in the 1980s.

Photos on the San Gwann association’s own Facebook page show men handling piles of explosives, both outdoors and indoors.

Planning Authority filings note a lack of nearby water hydrants, a gap that was predicted to make the work of first responders considerably harder.

Francis Xuereb is the president of the association, and the applicant on PA filings for the Ta’ Lourdes Factory. 

When asked, he told Amphora Media that he would not respond to questions regarding the incident. He said that neither he nor the fireworks association had responsibility over the land. He insisted he could not respond to questions when he was told his name was listed on the application. After the earlier explosion at the same factory, he told the media that everybody working with fireworks was duly licensed by the police.

In a statement following the explosion, the association claimed that, thanks to Our Mother of Lourdes, the firework technicians were unharmed. The association thanked emergency responders for their assistance.

2018: A Previous Explosion

The site has exploded before. In 2018, a blast destroyed part of the complex. At the time, Xuereb, as the Association’s President, said seven people were inside, two of whom suffered grievous injuries.

The factory had built unsanctioned structures, subject to PA fines. In June 2025, the Planning Authority approved the factory’s application to sanction building extensions, to build extra rooms and a water reservoir. The Building & Construction Authority validated the application’s declaration required for the works just last month.

For the application, the fireworks factory received a report from Fireworks Factory Complexes Policy Technical Committee, which instructed the factory to make sure that blast walls are kept empty, that an open shed is not used for fireworks manufacturing, and that vegetation on site and, when possible, in adjacent fields is cleared.

Supported by the government

The Lourdes fireworks factory was among those selected for the Arts Council Scheme to improve infrastructure and safety, allocating €5,000 per factory since 2018. The Arts Council’s annual report for 2021 shows that the association was allocated €5,000 for paving entryways and passages.

Asked whether it confirmed that security was improved, the Arts Council did not reply.

The factory was included among the Valletta 2018 locations.

“No one here is against fireworks, because they’re our tradition and they’re pretty,” says Veronica Camilleri, who has been living in the area before the fireworks factory was built and has suffered from the latest explosion. “But it is a dangerous – let’s call it – industry, so it has to be checked regularly, to see what they’re doing, how much they’re storing, how they’re storing it.”

What are fireworks manufacturers’ obligations?

By law, all individuals involved in the manufacture, storage, and discharge of fireworks must be trained and hold a licence from the police. For this, they must be recommended by a licensee, attend a course and pass an interview.

The police spokesperson did not reply when asked about the breakdown of licence holders allowed to work in this factory.

It is forbidden to manufacture fireworks without a licence. Only persons with specified types of licences are allowed to handle fireworks in factories, and a holder of the highest (A) licence category is in charge. Also, according to the law, any maintenance personnel must be authorised by the divisional police inspector responsible for the district and accompanied by the licensee of the fireworks factory. 
Regulations require that persons who discharge fireworks, which means setting them off insure their operations against a sum of €300,000, covering damage to third parties too. But manufacturing and storage are not mentioned.

Malta Pyrotechnic Association has appointed Global Insurance Brokers Limited to provide insurance for fireworks manufacturers. Commenting on the explosion, Global Insurance Brokers said this only covers transit and displays of fireworks during events. Malta Pyrotechnic Association did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

According to the law, in case of any breach of regulations, the Police Commissioner shall suspend the licence issued to the licensee, and/or any other person directly involved in the contravention. The police spokesperson declined to comment on the case while a magisterial inquiry and police investigations are ongoing.

The election brought the ruling Labour Party (PL) its fourth victory, with nearly 52% of the vote. Third parties and independents collected just over 3.5% among them.

Malta Today’s survey underestimated the PL’s performance by over 1 percentage point and was remarkably precise in estimating the performance of the opposition Nationalist Party (PN), with a difference of less than half a percentage point. However, it predicted over 5% would go to third parties and a lower turnout than in 2022. This did not happen. Earlier surveys by Malta Today predicted an even larger share for third parties.

The Times of Malta overestimated the PL’s share of the vote by 1.7 percentage points and underestimated the PN’s by a similar margin. It does not look like much, but, taken together, the Times of Malta’s survey had the least accurate estimate of the gap between the two parties. The Times of Malta predicted a much larger gap in the PL’s favour, at 33,600 voters. The gap estimated in the April survey was much closer to the actual election outcome.

This survey was extremely precise in the estimate of third-party vote, placing it at 3.6%. Earlier surveys predicted a similar result.

The Times of Malta also made a very accurate prediction of the turnout, which was slightly overestimated. The turnout predicted in The Times of Malta’s 17th of June survey was 87.9% – very close to the actual figure of 87.4%.

The latest survey by Vincent Marmara also severely overestimated the gap between the two main parties, projecting it at 30,000. Accordingly, it overestimated the PL’s performance and underestimated the PN’s performance by under 2 percentage points to each side. 

It was precise (within half a percentage point) in estimating the share that third parties and independents would get. Across four surveys he conducted since February, the gap was consistent and much larger than it ultimately turned out to be. Turnout predictions in surveys earlier in May were similar to Malta Today’s and much lower than the actual turnout.

All in all, it appears that Malta Today’s survey was the most precise in capturing preferences between the two establishment parties, but overestimated the protest vote (third-party vote and non-voting). The Times of Malta and Vincent Marmara’s surveys predicted a much more favourable outcome for the PL than what materialised.

But what shaped the vote itself? Which promises landed? And, with the campaigning over, which of them can realistically be delivered? This is a look back at the issues that drove the campaign and at the ones that barely featured.

Stability in the Economy & Energy 

Throughout the campaign, Prime Minister Robert Abela cast himself and his government as the experienced, trusted hands needed to steer the country through what he repeatedly called “global crises”; the reason, he said, that he had called a snap election in the first place. 

He worked to draw a sharp line between his own record and the relative inexperience of Alex Borg, who is still only 30 and less than a year into the Nationalist Party leadership.

Abela made repeated digs against Borg’s economic credentials in each national debate. This line was echoed among key Labour Party figures, including Finance Minister Clyde Caruana.

However, Borg’s performance, given the relative proximity to his ascending to the top of the PN, may concern the PL moving forward.

Malta has experienced strong economic growth. The European Commission’s spring forecast projects Malta’s economy to grow by 3.7% this year, the highest rate in the EU.

“The expansion is driven by robust domestic consumption and a thriving tourism sector, and is projected to moderate to 3.7% in 2026 and 3.6% in 2027 as external economic conditions become less favourable,” it reads.

Maltese households have been relatively shielded from the price shocks felt elsewhere. The prices of water, electricity, gas and fuel have held steady thanks to government intervention. 

Energy Support Measures – subsidies designed to shield households and businesses from rising global energy prices – are projected at €172 million for 2026, bringing the running total to €968 million by year’s end.

Abela was unmovable on keeping fuel subsidies, and pressed the claim that Borg and a Nationalist government would scrap them.

Yet the cost of living remains a real anxiety, and not every voter feels the much-cited economic boom is reaching them. At the end of March 2026, central government debt stood at €11.4 billion — €621.8 million higher than a year earlier. 

Labour’s headline pledge was a yearly “super bonus” for eligible workers, paid directly by the government. Beyond that, its offer leaned on expansion rather than reinvention: widening the first-time buyers’ scheme, lifting pensions and improving working conditions.

Borg and the PN pitched a different emphasis. Their economic case opened with tax cuts for SMEs and start-ups and the removal of inheritance tax, then widened to include an industrial strategy.

Borg also promised to cut public debt, subsidise long-term rentals for young couples and low-income earners, and match pensions to the cost of living.

The marquee idea, though, was an offshore fuel hub, and it became a campaign flashpoint. Abela attacked it repeatedly, at one point claiming, infamously, that it had first been pitched to him by a “contrabandist.”

On energy, the PN floated “aggressive” solar and wind subsidies and pilot projects for Gozo.

Traffic

Traffic consistently ranks among voters’ top concerns, and it is costly to leave it as is. 

According to Malta’s National Transport Master Plan, congestion costs the economy €770 million in 2025 and is projected to reach €917 million a year by 2030. That figure excludes environmental costs, CO₂ and other air pollutants, expected to add a further €195.4 million a year

In April 2026, days before the election was called, the government and Transport Minister Chris Bonett announced a revised €2.8 billion ‘La Valette’ light rail line, and Labour campaigned on it. 

Borg highlighted transport issues and championed his party’s mass transportation system, saying he was ready to resign if it failed. He regularly criticised the government for proposing a mass transport system but failing to deliver beyond the study stage.

Both parties avoid discouraging private car use. The PL has said it will keep subsidising fossil fuels, while the PN has hinted at reducing car dependence through changes to urban design and infrastructure to support alternatives.

Tourism, Population & Migration

This campaign was set against the backdrop of growing concerns about migration, overtourism, population, and a collapsing birth rate. 

Malta’s tourism numbers have more than doubled in a decade. The population has ballooned past 575,000. Absorbing that surge has eroded housing affordability, intensified development, stretched local capacity to manage waste and noise, and fed rising resident dissatisfaction. 

Yet despite concerns among residents, the issues did not form part of key campaign issues. Omar Rababah’s candidacy and questions about the development of a mosque drove the discussion.

The proposals on the table mostly addressed how to redistribute flows and revenue rather than curb low-cost tourism itself.

The Labour Party focused on giving councils direct revenue from outdoor dining permits and tourists’ eco-taxes, in addition to the incumbent administration’s reforms targeting short lets and hotels.

Both present incentives for family-friendly policies, but on migration, both focused on ramping up existing policies. 

The PN, on its part, presented a joint task force between the police and army on irregular migration and drug crimes, which was criticised by the PL.

The Environment

Environment and climate are regularly among the top 5 concerns for Maltese people and the 4th-highest concern for young people. Despite its booming economy, Malta lags behind most EU countries in key sustainable development metrics.

It was a focus of the election, but more on economic value and energy dependence.

The PL said it would reach a 25% renewable energy by 2030. Fourteen EU countries had already surpassed this target in 2024. It said it would also expand the shore-to-ship system, which, according to the latest data used by vessels 9% of the time.

It has pledged to continue the practice of hunting and reduce enforcement when offenders are caught committing environmental crime. The FKNK openly endorsed Gozo and Planning Minister Clint Camilleri, who is also responsible for the sector, during the election.

Subsidising fossil fuels has also received criticism.

The PN focused on investing in the green tech industry. But this push towards implementing legal safeguards against development on agricultural land, and an overhaul of planning policies and protection of ODZ.

It would also purchase private land in urban cores to create parks and gardens, introduce “aggressive” subsidies for solar and wind technology, and pilot projects for Gozo.

Like the PL, it said it would retain hunting and trapping despite court rulings.

Issues noticeably absent from the public debate:

Crime, Justice & Corruption

Malta is officially becoming safer. However, there is more domestic violence, drug-related, and environmental crime. Justice remains slow, and Malta continues to perform poorly on the EU’s justice scoreboard.

Corruption remains a significant issue. The Vitals case is ongoing, and several cabinet members resigned during the previous election amid major allegations. Roderick Galdes was even blocked from running.

However, Borg offered barely a whimper on the subject, choosing to focus on policy rather than on good governance issues. The PN had previously been accused of doing too little. It remains to be seen whether the party will ever commit to presenting major visions on both.

Equality, Education & Health

Malta’s changing economy and settlement patterns have affected different groups of the population unevenly. An equality and inclusion policy would help address gaps. However, it was among the weakest areas of the campaign.

Rarely a subject of political controversy, the education sector has seen several promises by both parliamentary parties. This is amid worrying trends: stagnating A-level attainment, disparities between state, church and independent schools, and gaps in women’s labour market attainment despite higher education.

On health, the PN made wide-ranging proposals, but as the campaign wore on, they seemed to be pushed further and further to the back. The Vitals case was referenced, but more for lost time and resources than for criminality. 

The gap is projected to be between 18,000 and 19,000. This was conceded by the Nationalist Party (PN).

The turnout was higher than in 2022.

In 2026, total voter turnout reached 87.42%, up by 1.8% from 2022.

Across the 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2017 general elections, the figure drifted downward yet never once fell below 92%. Then came 2022, when turnout slipped by roughly 7 points from the previous election to 85.6%.

The electorate itself has been steadily expanding. Between 2003 and 2022, the roll of registered voters grew by 19.2%, climbing from 297,930 to 355,075. By 2026, the number of eligible voters reached 356,832, a net gain of 1,767.

This year, the highest turnout was in the 7th district, and the lowest was in the 12th.

These are the results by district:

Do voters care about the cost of living?

Survey respondents ranked price pressures among the top five concerns across the years and different surveys. The exact questions were not directly comparable, but a general trend is clear: whether it is cost of living, food prices, or inflation, people are deeply concerned.

In a 2022 survey of youth, respondents were asked how expensive it is to live in Malta. Millennials’ average score was 4.32 out of 5, and Gen Z’s was 4.15. Inflation was a concern for over half of Gen Z and over 40% of millennials.

Yet when the Times of Malta asked its website users how they were personally responding to the price shock in 2023, nearly one in five said they were doing nothing.

A Growing Economy And A Growing Debt

Those concerns sit against a backdrop of strong economic growth. The European Commission’s spring forecast projects Malta’s economy to grow by 3.7% this year, the highest rate in the EU.

“The expansion is driven by robust domestic consumption and a thriving tourism sector, and is projected to moderate to 3.7% in 2026 and 3.6% in 2027 as external economic conditions become less favourable,” it reads.

Growth, however, comes alongside a deficit: meaning the government spends more than it earns. Measured against GDP, that deficit has narrowed steadily to 2.2% of GDP in 2025 and is forecasted to remain below the EU’s 3% threshold.

Budget documents show Malta ran a deficit of €995 million in 2025 (above the expected €849 million), and is projected to be €852 million in 2026. At the end of March 2026, central government debt totalled €11.4 billion, €621.8 million higher than a year earlier. The debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to stabilise at around 46%.

Looking ahead, several pressures could trigger significant shocks. Malta’s economy leans heavily on labour migration and tourism, with the strains those bring; key sectors such as gaming are exposed to regulatory change; and the energy fuel subsidy is set to end.

How is the public sector cushioning the shocks?

Food continues to drive the retail price index in Malta, which tracks the price changes of key products over time. Housing also adds to inflation, but mainly in maintenance costs. 

The prices of water, electricity, gas and fuels are steady. However, the government intervenes in all of those sectors, notably with its Energy Support Measures – subsidies designed to shield households and businesses from rising global energy prices. These are projected at €172 million for 2026, bringing the total to €968 million by the end of the year.

As of February (latest data), the annual inflation rate was:

• 2.9% on food (excluding restaurants and takeaways),
• 2.3% on rent;
• 5.1% on house maintenance services;
• 1.6% on transport;
• 2.1% on pet supplies and services;
• 5.7% on restaurants and takeaways;
• 5.1% on furniture and furnishings.

Energy, water and fuels

Housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels account for 10% of the average household’s total spending, rising to 13% for low-income households.

Since 2022, the government has subsidised energy and fuel. EU institutions have criticised this policy for failing to protect vulnerable households or nudge people towards sustainable shifts. 

In addition to general subsidies, the government pays an energy benefit to residents earning less than €14,993 a year. The government subsidises the installation of water filters at homes, and socially vulnerable households can get help replacing inefficient appliances.

Still, Eurostat shows that nearly 8% of Malta’s residents were unable to keep their homes adequately warm when needed, below the EU average but more than in colder countries like Finland and Estonia. 

Food

A study by the Economic Policy Department found that the average household dedicated a quarter of its total expenditure to food and beverages, rising to almost 30% in low-income households.

In 2024, the government reached an agreement with importers to freeze wholesale prices of 400 goods prone to inflation. These are the products the government is subsidising:

                      The processing classification is based on the NOVA system

That year, about every tenth resident could not afford a meal with a source of protein, such as meat or fish, every other day – a share similar to that in France and Italy.

Housing

The Housing Authority runs a range of schemes to subsidise housing costs, including support for first-time buyers, loan subsidies, and assistance for social housing tenants, regular tenants and landlords, among others. 

Over the past decade, house prices in Malta have risen faster than the EU average; faster than in Italy and Cyprus, though more slowly than in Czechia, Hungary or Poland.. In 2024, 70% owned the home they lived in. Tenants, meanwhile, experienced steep rent increases since the pandemic, with rents about 1.5 times higher in 2024 than in 2015. 

The Maltese lived in the largest houses in the EU, with 2.2 rooms per person, more space than people in richer countries like the Netherlands and Luxembourg. 

Less than 4% lived in an overcrowded home; this is much lower than the EU average, and the share of people living in under-occupied homes (too large for the household size) was among the highest, at nearly two-thirds. This shows that some of Malta’s housing problems stem from inadequate design.

Transport

There are other subsidies for daily essentials, such as free school buses and free public transport for all residents of Malta. The latter scheme is financed through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, and it is unclear what will happen after its closure at the end of this year.

Despite promises to tackle traffic congestion, cost-of-living subsidies effectively support reliance on private cars. The fuel subsidy supports private internal combustion car owners, while the electricity subsidy supports electric car owners. Grants encourage drivers to purchase electric cars.

How much do households need to survive?

An analysis by the Economic Policy Department maps out the thresholds. Households with disposable income above €3,000 a month can already put something aside; the median in this group saves €163 a month. Those with a disposable income of €8,494 or more per month save a substantial share, with a median savings rate of 43%.

The study found that “couples with two children require a monthly income in excess of €3,700 per month to cover their monthly expenditure”. 

Median households of three or more adults without children had the highest savings rate, but median elderly couples, single parents, two adults with children, and two adults with at least one elderly person but without children had negative savings, meaning they were spending more than they were receiving. 

Low-income households spend more than they make, which may indicate reliance on credit, past savings, intergenerational support, or undeclared income. On the contrary, high-income households spend less than 60% of their income and keep the rest.

What to watch for

The two major parties are trying to outdo each other, promising cash benefits and tax cuts. But voters are increasingly asking how the government will pay for this without raising taxes. Malta’s GDP growth will lead to lower EU co-financing for infrastructure and similar projects in the future 

During the pandemic, Malta has tested a highly successful voucher scheme, encouraging residents to spend on local businesses. On the contrary, cash benefits may or may not stimulate the Maltese economy. Are all candidates convinced that this is the best use of taxpayer money?

The current subsidy structure supports people’s habits, such as car use, fossil fuel dependency, and ultra-processed food consumption. Is the election season the right time to debate whether it’s time to nudge people towards healthier choices?

Four years after Malta’s two largest parties endorsed a gender-corrective mechanism to lift women’s representation in Parliament, gender equality in political power has barely budged, and the 2026 candidate list suggests little will change.

Of the 162 candidates contesting Malta’s 2026 general election, just 28% are women. The same share that currently sits in Parliament, brought through in 2022 after the gender corrective mechanism kicked in. 

Aħwa Maltin, a minor political party, is the only party fielding a gender-balanced list. AD-PD, another third party, is the only party led by a woman. Of the two parties currently in Parliament, Labour is fielding nearly 39% women; the Nationalist Party, 20%.

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Malta ranks 16th in the EU for gender equality. EIGE notes a good state of equality in knowledge and health, but finds issues regarding money and power.

As Malta heads toward another male-dominated legislature, it’s worth asking: have reforms made a difference?

Power and democratic representation

In the 2022 election, the PL and PN endorsed the gender-corrective mechanism with the aim of bringing the share of women in parliament to 40%. With this mechanism, members from the under-represented gender are added rather than replacing members of the over-represented gender.

The result from the last election was 28% women. The corrective mechanism added 12 women to districts that would not otherwise have elected them. Without that top-up, five districts would have returned all-male MPs.

There was not a single district in which a woman won the most first-count votes.

“What we have here in Malta is not a gender quota, it’s a gender top-up,” says Sandra Gauci of AD-PD, the only woman leading a political party in this election.

Gauci favours mandating gender-balanced candidate lists and penalising parties that fail to comply.

2022 Election: Gender Corrective Mechanism Impact

What parties do once their MPs are in place matters too.  

Cabinet and shadow cabinet appointments are entirely within party control, and they signal who is taken seriously. A gender-balanced cabinet could send a clear message and give women greater visibility.

Currently, two-thirds of men and women in Malta think that men are more ambitious in politics than women.

Robert Abela’s cabinet has 24 members, five of them are women: two ministers and three parliamentary secretaries or just over one-fifth of the cabinet. 

With just one exception, the PL recruits women to positions of power only from among those who are electorally popular.

Ministers Miriam Dalli and Julia Farrugia, and Parliamentary Secretaries Alison Zerafa Civelli and Rebccea Buttigieg (casual election) were elected directly, without corrective mechanisms. Currently, 14 women represent the PL (3 directly elected), and 9 represent the PN in the parliament (1 directly elected).

Among the PL women added by the corrective mechanism, four are backbenchers, one became a parliamentary secretary, and one became a government whip.

The entire PN parliamentary group of 35 members was given some kind of shadow cabinet portfolio, with 9 of 35 shadow ministers being women, just over a quarter.

*All of them except for Claudette Buttigieg are contesting the 2026 election.

Work and economy

For the 2022 elections, the ruling Labour Party (PL) manifesto featured a cover image of two children, with a smiling woman in the background watching them as they leave a playground and step onto a verdant meadow. But the current elections are profoundly shaped by an alarming demographic decline rather than economic output or equal representation.

Men’s average pensions are 40% higher than women’s, making it the largest gender pension gap in the EU. That single number sits downstream of nearly everything else: who takes career breaks, who works part-time, who absorbs the cost of caregiving.

Some of the women who are retired today were still subject to the marriage bar legislation, which was only removed in December 1980 and forbade married women from continuing their jobs in the public sector. 

This policy, imposed by the state, set the tone for decades to come, with research showing that the standard left women feeling guilty for seeking a career after marriage. The state has not fully compensated women for this past discrimination.

“That [affected] a lot of nurses, teachers – quite a lot of women work with the government. Even the data today shows that there are more women working with the government,” says University of Malta academic and Malta Women’s Lobby’s co-founder Prof. Anna Borg. 

She notes that especially women who are separated or divorced later in life are left without financial safety. “You will see that women are, as a category, more at risk of poverty than men overall,” she adds. 

These days, discriminatory laws are gone, but family pressures still hold women back. More than a third of women raising children under 11 years of age spend more than five hours per day on childcare. 

Only 14% of fathers report the same care intensity. Among men, 57% think that women should stay at home if childcare is unavailable, and 47% of women agree.

Although candidates are now promising more generous leave for parents, Prof. Borg points out that Malta effectively lost four years in implementing pro-family policies after choosing to transpose an EU directive on work-life balance in a reduced form in 2022. 

“When the directive was transposed into legislation, women’s organisations, and a lot of other NGOs, were very disappointed because the government did a very bad job in transposing that piece of legislation, and there was no extension of maternity leave. There was just the introduction of some paternity leave, which was positive, but when it came to parental leave, it was a mess, and the payment was extremely low,” she says. “It actually went against the spirit of the directive.”

She notes that the Nationalist Party put forward a private members’ bill in parliament to remedy these problems, but it was voted down.

“If you had to look at the proposals now, there has been a shift, definitely from the Labour Party, and I think it’s coming because there is now everyone is aware that we have a very low fertility rate,” Prof. Borg continues. “The resistance is there from the employers, but I think now the government is faced with the low fertility dilemma”.

Malta has one of the highest employment rates for women in the EU, counted in full-time equivalents. However, women are severely under-represented in the boards of publicly listed companies (17%).

The Equality Bill aimed to change this, but became a casualty of the parliamentary process. Proposed by Helena Dalli during the earlier (2017-2022) legislature, it reached the committee stage and never moved beyond. According to a MaltaToday editorial, this was due to backlash from the church, doctors, pharmacists, and teachers.

This bill would have banned advertising that promotes discrimination, discrimination in financial and insurance services, inquiries about private life and family plans during job interviews and more. 

It would have demanded that public administration ensure, not merely promote, equality mainstreaming in all policy areas. In appointments to public bodies, at least 40% appointees would have had to be women.

Parliamentary secretary Rebecca Buttigieg recently promised better pensions for women and longer parental leave, but did not return to the issue of the Equality Bill.

Consistent with PL’s 2022 electoral promise to support women’s start-ups, the Micro Invest incentive scheme has a higher maximum aid ceiling if an applying business is at least half female-owned – the same extra support that is available to businesses in Gozo and family businesses. But Micro Invest is for “innovation, expansion, and development” of businesses rather than for starting them.

Health

EIGE data shows Maltese men report feeling healthier than Maltese women, and the gap widens sharply among disabled persons.

This election campaign included a women’s health push. The prime minister promised free endometriosis medication, a dedicated women’s clinic and free hormone replacement therapy. Amid the flow of promises, voters are looking back at what happened to the previous batch.

The 2022 proposals that concern women’s health were:

• Free and accessible IVF – both parties: Free IVF was introduced already in the prior legislature, and costs are refunded to eligible parents.
• Free hormone replacement therapy and other medicines for women experiencing menopause – for both parties. Currently, female hormones are compensated only for people diagnosed with Gender Identity & Sex Characteristics Related Conditions, Hypogonadism, Hypopituitarism, Malignant Diseases, Turner Syndrome, Endometriosis/Adenomyosis, and Precocious Puberty.
• Free mental health care for women experiencing post-natal depression – PN. Help with moderate to severe perinatal mental health disorders is provided by the Perinatal Community Mental Health Service, available to mothers and fathers. There is also a screening programme for this.

Free medical aid may be offered to those diagnosed with endometriosis, osteoporosis, and Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics Related Conditions. Prof. Borg, having analysed both parties’ proposals, notes that free contraception had been promised previously but never implemented, and both major parties avoid engaging with the question of abortion.

Safety

Crime in Malta is overall in decline. However, domestic violence and sexual crimes are a particular concern.

Introducing femicide into Maltese law is recognised as a legal breakthrough, although its application in courts remains limited. Given the slow pace of justice, there is not enough case law to review how this change has worked in practice.

Femicide sits at the top of the iceberg of gender-based violence, which remains pervasive.

Official data reveal that 3 out of 16 women murdered in gender-based crimes between 2012 and 2022 had previously sought support from the national social welfare agency ahead of the crime. One in four women in Malta reports experiencing intimate partner violence. Police issued 17,486 domestic violence charges between 2021 and mid-2025 but secured only 933 convictions, roughly one for every nineteen charges.

As the 2026 manifestos roll in, some will repeat the promises of 2022. Voters might reasonably ask the candidates a different question this time: not what they promise, but how they want to go about delivering.

In a national address, Prime Minister Robert Abela called a snap general election for 30th May, citing an “extraordinary international situation”, particularly “energy”.

Russia’s war against Ukraine, the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, and rising tension around the Strait of Hormuz have pushed energy to the top of the international agenda, and, with it, the local one. Oil-based chemicals are in short supply, not just for energy but also for cosmetics, fertilisers, and plastic.

Maltese households have been largely shielded from the price shocks felt elsewhere in Europe, cushioned by Energy Support Measures expected to cost taxpayers roughly €1 billion by the end of 2026.

Beyond that, Malta’s experiences with blackouts – most notably in 2023 – have raised concerns over the long-term suitability of the country’s energy grid, and the investment needed to match supply with population and tourism growth.

The issue has been a key policy area that the PL and PN have tried to exploit, with Minister Miriam Dalli trading barbs with her counterparts over proposals.

Behind the back-and-forth lies an important question: what does Malta’s energy future look like?

Energy Support Measures: The €1 Billion Shield

Before the last general election, energy held its own dedicated ministerial portfolio. 

Since 2022, however, it has been folded into Miriam Dalli’s expansive super-ministry covering Energy, Environment, and Public Cleanliness.

The ministry commands one of the largest budgets in government, with a projected annual expenditure of €767 million in 2026. 

The Ministry is one of the largest spenders on direct orders and has maintained an uncompetitive public procurement system since Robert Abela became Prime Minister in 2020.

The United Equipment Co (UNEC) Ltd, part of Bonnici Group, was the top beneficiary, receiving over €32.2 million in direct orders for power generation, infrastructural works, industrial supplies, equipment procurement and more.

The Ministry’s single largest outlay is the Energy Support Measures – subsidies designed to shield households and businesses from rising global energy prices – projected at €172 million for 2026, following an actual spend of €183 million in 2024. 

Malta introduced the subsidy in 2022 in response to surging international energy prices, triggered by the post-COVID economic rebound and the Russia–Ukraine war.

The mechanism is, in effect, a universal price freeze: the government issues direct grants to state-owned Enemalta (electricity) and Enemed (fuel) so retail prices remain pegged to 2014 levels, a “zero-energy inflation rate”. 

It was accelerated in April 2022, when Malta’s long-term LNG hedging agreement expired. The country shifted from a fixed cost of €9.40 per unit of gas to a price indexed directly to Brent crude. That will expire in August 2026.

“Instead of passing increased energy prices on to consumers, the government decided to freeze retail energy prices by fully compensating the losses of the energy companies,” the IMF said in a country report.

The measures have worked as social policy. According to the Central Bank, they have prevented low-income households from bearing an inflationary burden roughly twice as heavy as that of wealthier households, because their energy spending is higher relative to their income and wealth. GDP in 2022 was around 1.2% higher than it would have been without intervention.

But the price has shown up in the public accounts. The European Commission has identified the measures as a primary driver of Malta’s national deficit, and the country was placed under an Excessive Deficit Procedure in 2024. 

The EU uses this mechanism to ensure that members of the eurozone have sound public finances and one country’s overspending does not destabilise the entire currency area.

Continuing the subsidy, the Central Bank estimates, will add roughly 4% to Malta’s debt-to-GDP ratio. 

The Central Bank has also warned of a less visible cost:: by holding prices artificially low, the subsidy mutes the very market signals that would otherwise push households and businesses to invest in energy efficiency or solar power.

It has called for a “phased and well-communicated exit” between 2025 and 2027, paired with targeted social support and stronger renewable incentives.

“[This] emerges as the most balanced path toward fiscal sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmental alignment with EU goals,” it wrote.

The Energy Transition:

Geography and density are part of the story. Malta has limited land for utility-scale solar, no operational offshore wind, and a grid that largely depends on LNG and an interconnector from Sicily. A second interconnector is on track to be finished by 2026, according to the government. 

Malta’s transition to renewable energy has grown, but at a relatively sluggish pace. Malta’s renewable energy share is the third-lowest in the EU, and trails behind regional peers like Cyprus.

• 2022: 12.9% renewable energy
• 2023: 13.6% renewable energy
• 2024: 15.7% renewable energy
• 2025: 16.2% renewable energy

Malta has committed to hitting only 10% of its renewable energy benchmark, and its 2030 projections fall significantly short of EU requirements. 

On paper, Malta’s climate performance appears strong. In 2023, Malta boasted the third-lowest net greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the European Union.

This success is largely due to the transition from heavy fuel oil to liquified natural gas and the launch of the Malta-Italy electricity interconnector.

The trajectory, though, is harder to assess. Malta recorded the fastest emissions growth in the entire EU between 2023 and 2024. That pace has since moderated, but total emissions continue to climb.  

Energy production is the island’s leading source of pollution. Transport is also a top contributor.
Under the EU’s Effort Sharing Regulation, where most member states have committed to a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030, Malta negotiated a much more modest target of just 19%. The government said it considers that target too ambitious for Malta.

Who is using the energy?

Between 2022 and 2024, the top three energy consumers remained unchanged, with commercial and public services consistently leading, followed by households and the industrial sector. 

Transport, despite being a lower-volume consumer, has seen the most dramatic relative growth, which correlates with the expansion of Malta’s electric car fleet.

What to watch for:

For voters cutting through the rhetoric, the questions that matter are simpler than the manifestos suggest. The €1 billion already spent on the shield was never put to a vote. The next billion will be, directly or otherwise.

Is any party prepared to say what happens to the subsidy? Is anyone pushing for new renewable capacity? Is the second (and the proposed third) Sicily interconnector the answer to resilience? Is the 19% emissions target being defended on its merits, or quietly conceded as one Malta will miss?

The shield has held this long. The election is about who carries it next and what, if anything, is being built behind it.

• Fewer crimes are committed than 10 years ago, despite a larger population.
• Domestic violence and sexual crimes are on the rise.
• Malta continues to criminalise and prosecute abortion.
• Meanwhile, a new law allows alleged perpetrators of tax crime, money laundering and fraud to avoid prosecution.
• High-profile corruption and homicide cases remain ongoing.
• Malta’s justice system is among the least efficient in the EU.

Malta is officially becoming safer. Theft and arson are the lowest on record. Petty crime against individuals and households is on the decline.

Yet there is more drug-related, environmental crime, while there are numerous prominent cases of corruption and white-collar crime. Justice remains slow, and Malta continues to perform poorly on the EU’s justice scoreboard.

With figures like Jon Mallia warning that the word ‘corruption’ has disappeared from the national debate, is tackling crime & justice on the political agenda?

Do voters care about crime and justice?

Crime & justice is consistently among the top 5 concerns for Maltese people in Eurobarometer surveys. 

In national surveys, the salience of the issues fluctuates over time, occasionally soaring upwards. This is especially visible in 2023, when concerns about justice and the rule of law appeared across surveys conducted by the Times of Malta, Malta Today and Eurobarometer. 

What crimes are affecting people the most right now?

Registered criminality is declining despite the boom in population and tourism. There were 18,579 crimes registered in 2005 against a population of 403,834 persons, but 15,594 crimes in 2025 against a population of 574,250 persons. As of 2025, Malta had 719 prisoners. 

The decline in criminality, however, is not even across the islands.

District 1 is marked by a particular crime risk. Four localities (Marsa, Hamrun, Valletta, Floriana) in the electoral district are classified as high- or very-high-risk localities. 

Floriana, in particular, is noted for its “extremely high” risk of vehicle-related crime (theft of or from vehicles; vandalism). In 2024, Floriana ranked at least five times higher than the national rate.

On the other end of the spectrum lies the 8th district. All its localities fall within the low-risk zone. Each other district has at least one locality with high crime risk. 

* – split localities

According to the Annual Crime Review, theft remains the most frequently committed crime, accounting for 28.4% of all offences reported to the police. However, that figure is declining, while pickpocketing cases decreased to 394. 

Damages, the second most reported offence (18.8%), experienced a slight increase between 2024 and 2025 but has generally dropped from 24.1% in 2015.

Gender-Based Violence & Femicide

Domestic violence, now the third most-reported offence, is on the rise.

Domestic violence reports have almost doubled since 2015, reaching 4,439 in 2024. One in four women in Malta reports experiencing intimate partner violence. Residents of Bormla, Santa Lucija, Valletta, Isla and Marsa (districts 1, 2 and 4) disproportionately suffer from domestic violence. 

Convictions remain low. Police issued 17,486 domestic violence charges between 2021 and mid-2025 but secured only 933 convictions, roughly one for every nineteen charges.

Sexual offences, including against minors, have been alarmingly increasing and more than doubled since 2005.

Amphora Media’s research has shown that while introducing femicide into law was a legal breakthrough, it is not enough to effectively tackle gender-based violence. A man convicted under the new femicide legislation has filed an application to challenge the law before the European Court of Human Rights.

Abortion

Abortion remains a criminal offence in Malta. This year, a woman was handed a suspended sentence for having an abortion; a doctor at Mater Dei Hospital had reported her to police after she admitted herself following heavy bleeding.

Amphora Media’s award-winning investigation has shown there were at least 2,000 self-managed abortions in Malta between 2020 and 2025. 

Abortion pill shipments into Malta had also doubled in four years, in a climate where travelling for abortion is up to 25 times more expensive. Spain has now surpassed the UK in the number of women from Malta travelling to have an abortion.

Financial Crime, Corruption & The Assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia

Fraud and financial crime remain a concern in Malta. 

International scam networks with ties to Malta have avoided trial. An alleged illegal gambling network has stretched to the island, while potentially illegal practices, including operations in grey & illegal markets, are effectively protected through Bill 55.

Meanwhile, Malta has introduced an out-of-court settlement mechanism that allows people accused of tax evasion, fraud, and money laundering to avoid all criminal liability. 

It has impacted major cases, including: Aron Mifsud Bonnici, Christian Borg, and Nigel & Mikaela Scerri. The new law came into force just as money laundering arraignments were beginning to rise.

Drug trafficking, importation, and possession with the intent to supply are also growing trends. Between 2024 and 2024, there was a 47% increase in illegal hunting and trapping.

Beyond that, there have been a number of convictions involving perpetrators of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Amphora Media reported on the financial activities of the Maksar brothers – including suspicious transactions with We Media – on which the police have never taken action.

The Vitals case, which saw major political figures like former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi, candidate Chris Fearne and others charged in court, is also still underway. A number of other criminal inquiries are still works in progress.

Allegations of corruption or abuse of public office remain commonplace. During this legislature, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, Minister Clayton Bartolo and Minister Roderick Galdes were all made to resign from their posts. MP Rosianne Cutajar was removed from the PL parliamentary group but was later reinstated.

Bartolo and Galdes are the only two who are not contesting with the Labour Party. 

How are the police and justice system resourced?

Despite sharp population and tourism increases, the number of police officers across 35 police stations, barely grew, and frontline ranks even shrank.

As of November 2024, Malta’s police force employed 2,405 people, just 32 more than in 2017, and about 500 more than in 2004, when the population was roughly 400,000. That year, the police processed nearly 87,000 reports.

The number of police officers supervising the trapping derogation is also declining, and the number of vehicles they use has halved between 2022 and 2023. In Gozo, despite its small population, the police failed to identify over half of the offending trappers.

The 2025 police budget is set at €117.3 million, more than double the nearly €53 million spent in 2013. 

Government budgetary documents indicate that the surge is primarily driven by rising overtime, allowances, and salaries, despite the police workforce expanding by only 14 personnel between 2018 and 2024.

Overtime costs have increased 860% in a decade. Allowances have more than doubled.

The government also generously spends on private security firms.

Courts Delayed, Justice Denied

A report by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation revealed that Malta has one of the highest court expenditure rates, yet one of the smallest judiciaries per capita and one of the lowest resolution rates in Europe.

According to separate data compiled by the Council of Europe, in 2022, the implemented judicial system budget of Malta amounted to €38,985,790.

Malta also has more lawyers per capita than most EU countries, but ranks third-worst in the use of digital technology by courts and prosecution services. The estimated time to resolve judicial cases in Malta is among the longest.

The Foundation’s report uncovered how Malta records an average of 6 murders per year, but only an average of 1.5 cases are concluded annually, leading to a mounting backlog of unresolved cases.

Currently, 46% of homicide cases between 2010 and 2020 remain pending, while accused persons wait at least three years for a trial date after being indicted.

A major reform has also impacted citizens’ rights. Under Bill 125, ordinary citizens can no longer directly petition a magistrate to initiate a magisterial inquiry; instead, they must file a police report and wait six months before approaching the courts.

Citizen-led inquiries made an overwhelming minority of cases and led to the arraignment of major political figures.

What to watch for:

In most localities, residents can feel safe from crimes that would target them outdoors: robberies, pickpocketing, attacks on themselves and their property. This is attributed to better policing and surveillance. On the other hand, police can help less in dealing with crimes that happen indoors, such as domestic violence and cyber scams.

Moreover, Malta is becoming safer unevenly across localities. Will the candidates running in the 1st, 10th, and 11th districts dare to confront the disproportionate burden of crime on the localities in these constituencies? Will anyone promise a separate police station for Paceville?

Police resources are stretched, and the justice system is notoriously slow and inefficient. Who will commit to a comprehensive reform?

Malta’s population has ballooned: the latest census (2021) registered over 100,000 new people in a decade. By the end of 2024, the population stood at 574,250 – not including the 4 million tourists who arrived in Malta in 2025.

The foreign population has increased fivefold and now accounts for more than 20%, with Amphora Media’s Landscapes of Change project exploring how migration has reshaped various towns, while services, community infrastructure, police and integration policy have remained inadequate.

Concerns are compounded by Malta’s low birth rate, which is even lower among migrant residents than among native Maltese.

How much do voters care about migration and population?

Foreigners are often brought under one umbrella in Malta: whether they are EU workers, non-EU workers, asylum seekers, refugees or even tourists.

These differences may be difficult for people to unpick, making it challenging to measure public opinion on the varying forms of migration.

Migration makes some voters uneasy, but others accept it as an inevitable product of a booming economy – and, indeed, its building block.

In a 2024 survey, over 15% said that Malta needs foreign workers very much, and nearly 18% said it doesn’t need them at all. Over half said that bringing in foreign workers is the solution to a shortage of Maltese workers for certain jobs – that share rose to almost 60% in 2025.

“If the economy continues to grow, we will have to import foreigners, no questions asked. If we don’t, the economy will grow at a lower rate,” Clyde Caruana said before he became the finance minister.

Eurobarometer surveys have regularly placed migration among the top 5 concerns of Maltese residents. The Times of Malta’s surveys have ranked asylum and migration as the third-highest concern for respondents in 2025-2026.

The Key Migration & Economic Figures:

• Malta’s population has grown from 417,432 in 2011 to 574,250 in 2024.
  
• Malta issued over 326,000 single permits between 2015 and 2024 – these combine residence and employment rights. Nearly 9 in 10 single permit holders are in Malta for 12 months or more.
  
• As of 2024, 123,772 foreign nationals were working in Malta.
  
• Most migrant workers now come from non-EU countries such as India, Nepal and the Philippines (each over 10,000). The largest group of EU workers are Italians (12,000), followed by Romanians (over 2,700).

• A fifth of EU migrants were working in professional, administrative and related occupations. Nearly 15% are managers, and 7% work in elementary occupations.
  
• A quarter of third-country nationals (incl. UK and the USA) are in professional, administrative and related occupations; a fifth are in trade, transportation and IT. Only 4% are managers, and 27% work in elementary occupations.
  
• Population growth and migration have helped Malta more than double tax revenues between 2013 and 2023, alongside nearly doubling income tax and social security contributions.
  
• According to the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations, 218 companies and individuals are licensed to provide recruitment, temping and outsourcing services. These include Nigel and Mikaela Scerri’s Ennesse Ltd, numerous private security companies, Edward Zammit Tabona’s Ozo Group, and Malta Health Care Caterers, a beneficiary of substantial direct orders.
  
• The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) reports that there were 7,554 non-Maltese workers in online activities licensed by MGA and 422 in casinos in 2024 – nearly three-quarters of all workers in both cases.

Asylum Seekers & Refugees

While voters feel uneasy but accept explosive population growth, politicians have repeatedly showcased a heavy-handed approach to asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers and refugees have different statuses from other TCNs. Asylum seekers are persons who have asked for protection, while refugees are those who were forced to flee their country and cannot return.

The contribution of asylum-related migration to overpopulation is negligible. Amphora Media’s research has shown that migrants passing through the asylum system are only one-tenth of all the foreigners living in Malta.

For context: For every thousand Maltese citizens, there are 267 foreign residents, 101 tourists, but just 4 asylum seekers and 21 refugees.

By 2023, Malta was no longer among the top 10 EU countries in terms of asylum applications per capita. In 2024, the largest numbers of asylum seekers came from Syria (which accounted for nearly half of all applicants), Colombia and Bangladesh.

According to the UNHCR, as of August 2025, 1,956 out of 8,997 beneficiaries of international protection were employed.

The Nationalist Party has repeatedly raised concerns about overpopulation. The government has responded to these concerns by singling out asylum seekers and ramping up publicity of every deportation campaign.

Do deportations help relieve overpopulation pressures?

Between 2020 and 2024, Malta deported 1,840 individuals. It is not clear how many of them came through the asylum route. Boat arrivals have been registered for only three of the ten most-deported nationalities. 

The data suggest that most deportations concern not rejected asylum seekers but migrants who entered Malta through other channels, including labour migration and visa-free travel.

There is a special procedure in the EU to return people with another EU country’s protection documents if they try to settle outside the country that granted them protection. 

In 2024, 68 people were transferred from Malta to other countries, and 81 were transferred back to Malta from other countries.

What to watch for:

The days of unpredictable boat arrivals and high asylum-to-population ratios are in the past. 

In Malta, legal labour migration is the dominant pathway and a key contributor to population growth. Singling out asylum seekers when Maltese citizens point out that Malta’s infrastructure and space are not prepared for more migration is political scapegoating without evidence.

Which political party will acknowledge the close bond between migration and economic growth and the Maltese businesses’ responsibility for population growth? 

Will any politician dare to propose regularising the status of people lacking proper documentation but already living and integrating in Malta, like Spain did, instead of relying on agencies to continue shipping people from overseas? 

And will the businesses that have profited from this economic model be called to contribute more to financing the public sector’s measures to introduce necessary adaptations?