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.

A New York Times review of securities filings from nearly 500 companies showed that they avoided at least $40 billion in taxes by attributing hundreds of billions of dollars in earnings to low- or no-tax foreign jurisdictions such as Malta, Cyprus, Bermuda, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands. Amphora Media contributed to the research.

The investigation, which focuses on the impact of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from a global effort to curb offshore tax avoidance by multinational companies. Offshore tax strategies don’t necessarily break any laws in the US, but experts who spoke to the NYT said it had gone too far.

“A favourite destination was the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, where Abbott Laboratories, the pharmaceutical giant, has claimed all its global profits were earned by a subsidiary with no employees. Malta helped the company cut its tax bill by $336 million last year, the filings show,” the NYT article reads.

“Abbott made Malta the final destination of a cat-and-mouse game to stay one step ahead of tax authorities. In 2023, the drugmaker created a subsidiary in Bermuda, which had no corporate income tax. But Bermuda enacted one to comply with the O.E.C.D., which was scheduled to take effect in January 2025.”

“On Dec. 19, 2024, 13 days before the new Bermuda law kicked in, Abbott shifted the tax residency of the subsidiary to Malta, filings show. In 2024, the Abbott unit reported $17 billion in net income — more than its total global profit — and no income taxes anywhere.” 

“Malta helped Abbott cut its tax bill by nearly 20 per cent last year, filings show. The documents also disclose the number of employees at the Malta entity: zero. “

The US Internal Revenue Service is now challenging more than $1 billion of Abbott’s savings, U.S. Tax Court filings show. As part of that dispute, the agency contends that a transaction generating $8 billion of deductions to shield profit from the U.S. minimum offshore tax was abusive and lacked economic substance.

Abbott is far from alone in choosing Malta. According to the NYT, Thermo Fisher Scientific, the scientific equipment maker, used the island to cut its taxes by $3.5 billion last year

S&P Global, the ratings company, trimmed its bill by $269 million through Maltese subsidiaries. Yum Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, saved $121 million. Crocs, the shoemaker, saved $47 million by using Malta, where the company has no offices.

The International Tax Observatory, a research group at the Paris School of Economics, says profits allocated by U.S. companies to Malta soared to $5.6 billion in 2022 from $134 million in 2017.

In 2021, the Biden administration said it would join an effort coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to impose a minimum corporate income tax of 15 per cent. 

That levy applies on a country-by-country basis, avoiding the blending loophole and reducing the incentive to shift income into tax havens. Dozens of nations signed on, including most European Union members, Japan, Britain and Australia.

In 2022, the European Union issued a directive permitting a handful of countries, including Malta, to delay carrying out the 15 per cent minimum tax. That tax in Malta will not kick in until the end of 2029.

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.

Third parties and independents took 10,689 votes in the general election, or 3.55% of the total, a marginal rise on the 3.15% they collected in 2022, and almost double the 1.29% recorded in 2017. 

Momentum, launched and led by long-standing candidate Arnold Cassola, was the best-performing third party at its first attempt, taking 1.54% of the vote. 

Cassola himself did the heavy lifting. He pulled 795 first-count votes in the 10th district, nearly double the 427 he scored there previously, and another 722 in the 9th. Mark Philip Camilleri Gambin also performed well in the 11th district, receiving 532 first-count votes.

It’s reflected in the overall district results. Momentum performed best on the 10th district (3.66%), 9th (3.16%), and 11th (2.35%), 

That result runs counter to the trajectory of ADPD, Malta’s longest-running third party. ADPD slipped from 1.61% in 2022 to 1.31% in 2026, losing about 750 votes, and ceding its position as the largest third-party. Leader Sandra Gauci announced she would step back from politics following the result.

Gauci was the third-best-performing third-party candidate, receiving 513 first-count votes in the 12th district and 455 first-count votes in the 6th.

Further down, Aħwa Maltin edged up to 0.60% (from 0.52% in 2022). Imperium Europa managed just 167 votes, only six more than the combined total of every independent candidate in the country.

Third parties ran a meaningful share of candidates this year. Of the 162 people on the ballot, just over 14% came from third parties. With eight candidates, ADPD had the largest representation, followed by Momentum and Aħwa Maltin with seven candidates each.

Yet representation on the ballot does not translate into a level contest. Third parties navigate an obstacle course of historical loyalties, a lack of media infrastructures for propaganda and donation marathons, and an Electoral Commission that supports the duopoly.

The Electoral Commission counts votes, publishes election results and campaign expenses, reviews electoral division boundaries, and can initiate suspending an election if it alleges illegal or corrupt practices. 

Under Malta’s decades-long political duopoly, the rule that the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition propose their members effectively means that only the dominant parties can significantly influence the institution’s make-up.

ADPD’s chairperson, Sandra Gauci, told Amphora Media that her party had to “fight tooth and nail” to get access to real-time voting counts through the Electoral Commission’s laptops. Momentum’s chairperson, Arnold Cassola, too, pointed out that PL and PN members received voting updates every five minutes, while smaller parties are excluded from the process.

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:

That leaves a handful of seats to decide the shape of the result, and this year there is an extra variable: the relocation of more than 24,000 voters has redrawn the battle lines in several key districts.

Gozo: the 13th District & key battleground

The 13th District, which covers the island of Gozo, is one of the most tightly contested districts, even though it tilted more towards the PL in 2022 (53.5%).

It will be a marquee contest on election day. PN leader Alex Borg is a Gozitan and took more than 6,100first-count votes there in 2022, in his first general election. Gozo and Planning Minister Clint Camilleri is also popular with the island’s voters, winning more than 6,400 first-count votes in the same year.

Labour is fielding three ministers across the district: Camilleri, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights, Anton Refalo, and Minister for Health and Active Ageing Jo Etienne Abela. In total, 13 candidates are running in Gozo, among them only two women.

Gozo records the highest turnout in Malta, though it slipped below 88% in 2022. Borg is betting that being a Gozitan party leader on the ballot will help lift it again. Camilleri, meanwhile, has courted the politically powerful hunting and trapping lobby, the FKNK, for public backing.

The Labour strongholds under pressure: the 4th and 5th

The 4th and 5th Districts are also drawing the attention of pollsters such as Vincent Marmara. Both are traditional Labour strongholds, but questions remain over whether the ruling party can hold all four seats (to the PN’s one) it won in 2022. 

Two seats become a possibility for the PN once it reaches around 33% of the vote. In 2017, it secured two seats in the 5th District with that share. In 2022, the PN secured 31.5% in the 5th and 29.4% in the 4th. 

In the 5th, the PL is using a familiar strategy, fielding Prime Minister Robert Abela. A PL party leader has contested there in both the 2017 and 2022 elections. 

In 2022, Abela secured 9,996 first-count votes, more than 4,000 more than his then-counterpart, Bernard Grech, who also contested there. The PN has avoided a similar stunt in 2026, but Abela will be hoping his presence secures his party’s 4-seat majority.

Ministers Miriam Dalli, Owen Bonnici and Julia Farrugia, along with PS Omar Farrugia, are expected to secure more votes.

The PN has put up Toni Bezzina and some new faces, including Conrad Borg Manche, the former PL mayor of Gżira, who crossed to the PN for this election.

In the 4th, Labour is fielding four Cabinet members – Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, Transport Minister Chris Bonett and Parliamentary Secretary for Social Dialogue and Accommodation Andy Ellul – alongside sitting MPs Ray Abela, Katya De Giovanni and Amanda Spiteri Grech. 

Leading the PN’s push for a bigger share are MP Mark Anthony Sammut, former PN Secretary General Michael Piccinio and MP Bernice Bonello.

Re-Drawn Battlegrounds in the 12th and 8th: Over 24,000 Voters Moved Across Malta

The biggest wildcard is the boundary changes. The relocation of more than 24,000 voters into new districts will reshape several contests.

The largest single shift is in Naxxar: more than 10,980 voters have been moved out of the 12th and into the 8th (+6,051) and the 10th (+4,931). The new districts are historically PN-held, and the party has won them in each of the last three elections. 

The 12th, which will receive 3,734 voters from Mgarr, which was previously part of the 7th District, is far tighter; in 2022, the PN won 49.4% of the vote to the PL’s 46.8%. 

The PN has seemingly responded. PN Leader Alex Borg will contest in the district and will also hope to capitalise on the loss of former district heavyweights Clayton Bartolo and Michael Farrugia, who together received almost 5,500 first count votes.

The PL hopes to plug the gap with Minister Jonathan Attard, PS Alicia Bugeja Said and former MPs Deborah Schembri and Franco Mercieca.

A second shift hits the 8th District, which loses 4,177 voters from the Birkirkara/Fleur-de-Lys area to the 1st District, where Labour’s share climbed to roughly 60% in 2022. 

The 8th returned a 52% PN majority in 2022, but was as tight as 49% in 2013. This year, the PN fields Adrian Delia, Beppe Fenech Adami, Justin Schembri and Julie Zahra, while Labour hopes that Minister Clyde Caruana, Alex Muscat, Ramona Attard and newcomer Josef Bugeja, the former GWU president,  can use the voter shift to turn the district.

Many were not labelled as political at all. On Google, dozens of ads carrying the Labour Party’s electoral slogan were filed under categories such as “Arts and entertainment” and “Family and Community. One payer who is suspected to work within the Office of the Prime Minister.

For others, including ads for the Nationalist Party running on websites across Malta, the payer cannot be identified at all.

Amphora Media is tracking political social media advertising on its Open Malta platform.

Since the election was called on 27th April, candidates have run at least 615 ads on Facebook and Instagram. 

A further 142 ads for the Labour Party have appeared on Google, run either by its media arm, One Productions, or by Clive Farrugia. One Clive Farrugia is the head of secretariat at the Office of the Prime Minister – he did not respond to a right of reply asking him to confirm or deny whether he placed ads on Google, but he is seen reposting Robert Abela’s and PL’s posts on his Facebook profile.

From October 2025, Google and Meta stopped running electoral ads in the EU following the bloc’s expansion of its advertising transparency requirements. 

Since the rule change, Amphora Media has identified at least 1,200 ads on election candidates’ Facebook pages.  Before then, the PL, PN and their candidates ran over 9,900 ads on Facebook and Instagram.

In most cases, the candidates advertising on their personal profiles declared themselves as the payers. In some cases, it was a business associated with the candidate.

Yet there are some notable exceptions: the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare is the indicated payer of a paid promotion on Fleur Abela’s personal page, which features the Labour Party’s electoral slogan, Int Malta. In response to Amphora Media’s questions, Abela said that she paid for the ad herself.

META ads run by candidates since 27th April 2026:

Most ads run by candidates since 31st October 2025:

Google: Political Ads Labelled As ‘Entertainment’ And ‘Family’ By One 

Since the snap election was called, Amphora Media identified 74 political ads on Google placed by One Productions Ltd. Some of them have since been removed. 

Although the ads were clearly political and included the PL’s electoral slogan, they were labelled as “Arts and entertainment”, “Family and Community” or “Business and industrial”.

A second advertiser placing ads on Google for the PL was Clive Farrugia. Amphora Media found 68 ads by him, labelled “News, Books and Publications”, “Jobs and Education” and others.

One Productions did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions about these ads. It has not been filing audited accounts, as required by Maltese law, since 2010.

The Nationalist Party is also running Google ads on websites across Malta. However, it is not possible to identify the payer on the platforms the ad is running.

Google did not reply when asked whether it considered these ads compliant with its policies.

What the EU actually requires and why the platforms opted out?

The EU did not ban political advertising. 

According to the Commission’s guidelines, very large online platforms and search engines have obligations under the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation when they provide political advertising services (e.g., publishing, delivering, or disseminating political advertising) for remuneration. 

Ad technology providers like Google are considered political advertising publishers jointly with the public-facing interface (e.g. a news website).

Meta has called the provisions ‘unworkable’, and Google said ads defined as political are difficult to identify at scale. Both decided to stop allowing political ads. Google’s policy also affects YouTube, and Meta’s policy covers Facebook and Instagram.

Meta: short-lived ads on personal pages

Meta defines political ads as “Made by, on behalf of or about a candidate for public office, a political figure, a political party, a political action committee or advocates for the outcome of an election to public office; or About any election, referendum or ballot initiative, including ‘go out and vote’ or election campaigns”.

Meta says it reviews ads for violation of its policy based on “specific components of an ad, such as images, video, text and targeting information, as well as an ad’s associated landing page or other destinations”. The review is automated, and a manual review is added: “in some cases”.

Amphora Media is informed that Meta considers political ads running on Maltese candidates’ pages non-compliant with its policy and rejects them when it becomes aware of them.

Facebook’s ad library reveals the scope of this whack-a-mole approach: although there are fresh ads any given day, political ads are routinely rejected, and those that were not caught often run for under a day.

The European Commission’s spokesperson said that “It is for national authorities to enforce the Regulation [on ad transparency]. It is for the sponsor of political ads – the person seeking to publish a political ad – to declare the political nature of the ad. However, once platforms become aware of an undeclared political ad, they need to take immediate measures to ensure the ad’s political nature is properly declared. If necessary, they must withhold the dissemination until this takes place.”

The spokesperson added that “The Commission may revise these guidelines in the future, to take into account the lessons learned from the implementation. The Commission will also take stock of the implementation with stakeholders through an implementation dialogue in the course of this year.”

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?