Significant amount of Labour voters may boycott general election, Alfred Sant warns

Mar 13 2022

Former Maltese Prime Minister and current Labour MEP Alfred Sant has stated that a significant amount of Labour voters may boycott the March 26 election due to a number of reasons.

Recent analysis such as statistician Vincent Marmara’s survey for It-Torċa have forecasted a Labour win by 39,000 votes whilst MaltaToday’s survey puts the voting bracket at 26,000 votes. Despite this, Sant has stated that, while the effect may not be large enough to change the election result, regular PL voters may spoil their vote or abstain, going on to highlight that the number of such individuals may be larger than what surveys are illustrating.

Whilst urging the Labour Party to attempt to recover votes lost, he argued the fact that some people may have had personal issues with Labour representatives, which must be justified, while other complaints may be of fascist nature and must be discarded.

Seemingly relating to the MEP’s sentiments, some took to the comments to express some of their own issues in this regard.

What do you make of this?

#MaltaDaily

Rain showers and strong wings expected in Malta and Gozo on Sunday

Mar 13 2022

A look at the sky is more than enough indication that the weather isn’t the most pleasant today, but various Maltese weather pages have been forecasting strong winds and rain showers for the remainder of Sunday.

Facebook page ‘It-Temp Madwarna’ has forecasted a 95 per cent chance of rain, with winds as strong as gale force 5 and temperatures feeling as low as 9 degrees celsius. Elsewhere, ‘Malta Weather’ has warned of moderate to strong winds and rain showers across Malta and Gozo.

Malta’s Met Office via the Malta International Airport is reporting rainy weather with temperature highs of 13°C and lows of 10°C. Rather strong winds to strong Southeast becoming moderate are also expected, with a trough of low pressure extending from Morocco to Tunisia reported in the Maltairport website’s detailed forecast.

So don’t get your shorts and tank tops out just yet.

#MaltaDaily

Gozitans workers in Malta should be paid for travelling time, says Bernard Grech

Mar 13 2022

Bernard Grech has stated that a Nationalist Government will ensure that Gozitans travelling to Malta to work would start being paid for their travel time ‘from the moment they board the ferry’.

During a Nationalist Party event at Għajnsielem on Saturday, Grech reiterated the PN’s vision of the population’s responsibility towards one another, slamming the government’s treatment of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia whilst also highlighting a brief pause to the election campaign to make way for a national march in solidarity with Ukraine.

Grech highlighted that Gozitan workers who need to come to Malta to work would benefit from this new scheme by receiving payment from the moment they embark the ferry until they arrive back in Gozo, going on to criticise the Planning Authority’s recent approval of permission for a large apartment block in Sannat.

Also recently, a number of Maltese environmental NGOs have stated that Malta’s two major parties have failed to address biodiversity protection through their proposals, calling them ‘greenwashing‘.

Do you agree?

#MaltaDaily

Malta’s environmental NGOs are not convinced by PLPN green proposals; claim ‘greenwashing’

Mar 13 2022

A number of Maltese environmental NGOs have expressed their concern with the Nationalist & Labour Party’s failure to fix in on protecting local biodiversity in their electoral manifestos.

Made up of seven green NGOs, the members stated that Malta is already the most ‘built-up’ state in the European Union and the issues of habitat loss and maritime area protection must be tackled urgently.

In their respective electoral manifestos, the Nationalist Party is pledging to demarcate 50,000 square metres of land into ODZ every year whilst the Labour Party promises to invest €700 million on the development of urban ‘green lungs’ over a period of five years. The NGOs concerned are BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Nature Trust-FEE Malta and Ramblers Association of Malta.

The seven NGOs have stated that while urban green areas are needed, they do not counteract the destruction of natural habitat, going on to appeal to political parties to commit to Malta’s environment and the necessary measures, remove ODZ loopholes, end derogations of the EU’s Birds Directive and stop land reclamation plans, amongst others.

Do you agree with the NGOs?

#Malta