Election Playbook: Grech Mintoff makes an eggs-it

Grexit: Politics can be absurd, and Ivan Grech Mintoff’s sudden resignation on air is politics at its most absurd. During a debate on the public broadcaster Tuesday night, Ivan Grech Mintoff announced that he will be offering his resignation as leader of Partit Abba, and will resign from the party’s executive. Imagine resigning as leader from your party days before people vote in an election you’re contesting in. In fact, on the ballot sheet he is still going to appear as a candidate for Partit Abba, but is asking people to consider him as an independent candidate. This all stems from some drama with the party’s secretary general, which you can read more about here.

Disinformation-watch: Norman Lowell messed with the wrong former TV presenter. A political spot has been going around on the public broadcaster seemingly showing Peppi Azzopardi saying “Norman Lowell was right”. Except he didn’t quite say that. In a short video clarifying the whole situation, Peppi Azzopardi said the advert completely manipulated his comments. He had been speaking on Jon Mallia’s podcast when he said: “Someone can say Norman Lowell was right, but those who say that don’t know what they are saying”. Bit of a far cry from saying Norman Lowell is right. Peppi Azzopardi said he can never agree with someone like Lowell, who praises Hitler and promotes eugenics. Azzopardi also questioned where the Broadcasting Authority is in all this, and how this was even allowed to air on national television. But the authority told MaltaToday that the advert does not, in fact, breach the law.

Endorsement confusion: Earlier in the day, Peter Agius posted what looked like an endorsement from Isabelle Bonnici, the mother of Jean Paul Sofia. The Facebook post sees her praising Agius for helping her case from a European perspective, and then saying that politics in Malta needs more people like Peter Agius. This is quite an endorsement! Especially from Isabelle, whose relentless campaigning last year saw the government launch a public inquiry into her son’s death. However, she later went on Facebook to clarify that this is not an exclusive endorsement. “I support everyone who helped me and still helps me regardless of whether they’re a political party or independent candidate,” she said.  

Campaign rizz-o-meter: Thirty-something days later, and everyone’s campaigns are coming to a close. So, I’m taking it on myself to vibe-check the different campaigns and rate them according to five characteristics: general vibes, political messaging, policies, strength of candidates, and strength of candidates. However, in an attempt to attract the youths to politics, I’m going to rate the campaigns in terms of ‘rizz’ (for the boomers, that’s internet slang for charisma). The PN’s campaign? Negative rizz I’m afraid. It was a bit too negative and the messaging was all over the place. Having their lead candidate completely out of debates and advertising doesn’t help either. ADPD? Zero rizz. It’s to be expected with the lack of resources, and that’s why they’re not in the negative like the PN. It’s also super awkward since they’re being completely crushed by their former chairman Arnold Cassola, again. Labour’s campaign? Kinda mid. The adverts were top production quality but the Establishment discourse quickly became a meme. They also didn’t have many star candidates compared to the years of Miriam Dalli and Alfred Sant.

What’s happening?: The two main parties have their star events in Ta’ Qali (Labour) and Siġġiewi (PN).