As we go up the staircase to Evarist Bartolo’s home, boxes of campaign fodder are stacked by the wall and on the stairs. The brown boxes contain the first inklings of the electioneering arsenal that is about to bombard the suspecting population. Within a few months, all the sedateness of public life will be turned into a circus of fools, mass rallies with virtues and blemishes of party leaders blasted out of the tannoy, carcades and flags, and the smell of political Armageddon filling the air once again. At least, the media will be happy.
Bartolo, 55, was one of Labour’s rising stars when Alfred Sant clinched the helm of the country in 1996, appointing Evarist as his minister of education. In those two years, Bartolo’s regard amongst the well-fed nestling of post-secondary and university students was hardly enviable – as the author of cuts in stipends he faced protests and strikes from angry students alienated from a government that was serious on cost-cutting and prodigious allowances to the university cohort.
Since that pecuniary misadventure ten years ago, Labour has reversed its stand on stipends, and in the brevity of four lines of its “plan for a new beginning”, announces it will maintain the current Lm8 million a year spend on acne cream, beer, fags and the odd book in order to “ensure and increase access to university for the largest possible number of students”.
Things have also changed for Bartolo himself. Shorn of his education portfolio, which went on to the younger Carmelo Abela, he was briefly European Affairs shadow minister before handed over the tourism portfolio, a change he dismisses as amounting to a demotion in his role in the party, considering his defeat at the party’s deputy leadership race back in 2003.
“I think both portfolios are important. We created the European Affairs brief as complimentary to the foreign affairs brief. I am happy to say I was there at the transition when we embraced membership following the results of the 2003 election. When Karmenu Vella said his commitment with Corinthia meant he couldn’t follow that brief as shadow minister, it was up to the Labour leader to choose who was suited to take it up.”
But it was shortly during this period in which Bartolo seemed to have been in hibernation shortly after the changes in the party structure after the 2003 election loss. He attributes this to the learning curve associated with taking up his portfolio, describing it as “two years of meetings”, and to have consciously put his family ahead of politics.
“Whereas up until 2005 politics came first, family has now moved to the top of the agenda. Family affairs have taken a lot of importance. I felt that in the previous years when my daughters were growing up, I wasn’t there at important points in their development and I think I have damaged them.” It’s a candid admission, one which follows his recent brave interview his wife and him gave about their daughter’s battle with anorexia nervosa. “It’s not the first time they told me I have time for everybody but not them. And it hurts.”
Labour is setting itself a target of 1.6 million tourists if elected to government. Bartolo pre-empts the question by saying the party hasn’t just made up the figure. He says the number isn’t actually a target, and that figures will have to increase if the tourism industry is to remain viable in the crucial shoulder months.
“We didn’t just concoct the figure. As in the rest of the world, the trend is to travel more frequently but on a shorter stay in the country. With the decrease in length of stay, this number is not even a target in itself – we would only be running on the spot. Ryanair’s deputy CEO Michael Cawley has even forecast the target could be reached by next year, given more low-cost routes are opened.
“The point we’re making is that tourists have increased by six to seven per cent this year, but guest nights are down by 3.5 per cent, which is a lot. We are still on the same spot.
“It’s good to see arrivals increasing from the UK and Scandinavia, but worrying that they are down from France, Germany and Italy. Unfortunately, the north of the island is not benefiting much from this increase, and Gozo is not enjoying much of the increase as Malta is. The numbers have to increase if we’re not to suffer losses in jobs.”
The figure, he says, is sustainable – infrastructurally – as long as the increase doesn’t manifest itself solely during summer. The key is to attract more tourists throughout the shoulder months. “And they are essential towards the viability of our hotels, restaurants and airlines. Unless low-cost airlines, as well as legacy airlines, have volumes, they won’t fly to Malta.”
The mix of low-cost and legacy will also continue to be part of the formula. Bartolo says LCCs “have to be here”, and that they must be afforded the importance necessary for that mix of travellers who use LCCs.
“More than 50% of people travelling out of the UK fly with low-cost. If half of the tourists from the UK coming here don’t come by low-cost then we have a mismatch. We will look at the international trend, because we can’t dictate to the market. As LCCs achieve dominance over tour operators, we must make sure that we are in tune with these trends.”
So what does the future spell for the national airline as Ryanair makes inroads with new routes?
“Air Malta has to survive,” Bartolo says, a statement which conjures up the labyrinthine struggle to rationalise bloated state companies dented by decades of governmental administration.
“First of all, we need to develop all possible air links between our islands and the rest of the world. Airlines are vital here. And we need our own airline, because it is a constant challenge to get volumes over here – we are not mass-tourism destination, and that’s maybe because we don’t have the right marketing approach, or because we have little critical density when it comes to being noticed and make tourists stand up and point out, ‘oh, look – there’s Malta’. It’s a constant struggle to attract airlines to Malta, which is why we need an airline loyal to Malta.”
The key to maintain competitiveness, Bartolo says, is management – a Santian keyword which features throughout much of Labour’s evaluation of Nationalist government.
“Better management, certainly. There are decisions being taken – and I don’t want to start off about whether political interference takes place at this point – which are debatable as to how business-like these decisions really are. We need a better quality of top management at Air Malta.”
But the airline also faces problems of over-manning, particularly at ground level.
“Well that is something we shouldn’t hurry,” Bartolo says referring to trimming staff from the bottom. “Let’s take a step back: Air Malta would have been in a better position today had it not been for two decisions taken in the past, specifically the purchase of the RJ-70s and Azzurair. At the time when Air Malta needed the money to face off the competition from low-cost and prop itself up for the rise in the price of oil, it was low on the cash required.
“We need a good understanding of what the situation at Air Malta is: we are not sure the figures being published by Air Malta reflect what is really going on. Even the accounts, we don’t think they are telling us everything.”
You are saying the financial figures Air Malta publishes are not reflective of its real situation?
“We are not trusting those figures… the government has an agenda for Air Malta it is keeping hidden for the general election. Remember that before the 2003 election, the Air Malta employees were offered heaven on earth.”
He turns his attention towards stemming a leak from the pilot complement of the airline. “Definitely it is not over-manned when it comes to pilots. That is where we have a crisis – flights have been called off because they are resigning. What we’re afraid of is that come next year, March or April, pilots are set to leave by the time they are free to go without incurring a fine. It is very worrying.
“But we also think that the example must come from the top. There are many sections at management level which need to be trimmed. If we go to the cargo or ground handling sections telling them they are over-manned, first we must look at the top structure.
“We will look at that by setting up a task force of people who are sensitive to Air Malta, who love and know Air Malta and want it to succeed. They will carry out a thorough assessment of the way forward. We won’t negotiate with unions with an us-and-them mentality as has happened now. We will go with an open mind. The mentality being adopted now is looking at unions as the enemy.”
Including long-serving directors such as Louis Grech, the Labour MEP, the task force would certainly not include those former directors responsible for the purchase of the RJ-70s and Azzzurair. “Definitely not,” he says.
One of Labour’s steadfast hallmarks is also lower taxation, a less common feature of left-wing governments, but Sant’s belief in smaller government has always been an attribute of Maltese new Labour. Not just in tourism, but also in a pledge to halve the energy surcharge if elected. Critics accuse them of being careless, unable to quantify the loss in revenue to the public coffers.
“The electorate is certainly more sophisticated in this respect, certainly more sceptic about these statements. When it comes to taxes, we’ll be doing two things not being done at present. A comparative analysis of how we fare internationally in terms of the cost of government to the tourism sector. If this cost is not competitive, we will lag behind in the industry. Less tax would translate into growth for business. Take VAT in restaurants – Malta did not negotiate with the EU for a lower rate of VAT for restaurants as Cyprus did. A HOTREC study puts Malta as a the highest taxed destination in Europe in terms of tourism.
“Now, a government study by Competitive Malta shows that if VAT is lowered in restaurants it can only generate more business and in turn increase revenue from taxation.”
But the party’s direction in favour of lower taxation belies its mission for a greater redistribution of income, its commitment towards social justice: won’t the shortfall in finance endanger this mission.
“Well, we need a low-cost government,” Bartolo says. “We have to trim the over-spending and corruption on government projects which has cost around Lm191 million in variations over the last years. We need both a better government, and a low-cost government. I am talking about money wasted through decision-making – take MEPA for example. They take a year to do a perched beach in Spain – in Malta it takes five years. Such time-wasting is a cost of government.”
What about costs of government such as half-days in the civil service during summer, which leads to an under-utilisation of employees, a loss in government productivity, and a major headache to citizens and private businesses in need of government services – wouldn’t that be a cost to be addressed?
“If we need to make the country more effective and productive we would have to look at these things. We might have to view things more holistically. France has more public holidays and is more productive. We would start with the sectors which are relevant – such as government services which leave citizens waiting. We need an efficient government. It is something we have to do.”
Much of the talk on efficiency, smaller government and greater productivity has certainly overshadowed the political agenda in the space of five years in which civil liberties and talk on reforms have been conspicuously off the agenda. If Labour once enjoyed an edge when it was elected in 1996 when Sant created a commission designed to look into the introduction of divorce, the edge is no longer there. Bartolo echoes the Labour leader’s scepticism on igniting the debate on divorce, despite the reality of 500 marriage break-ups every year. “There are issues concerning divorce, cohabiting partners gay or straight, which have to be addressed. But they have to come from civil society.”
Why not initiate them yourself?
“I think civil society will feel bold enough to raise the issue once we are in government.”
And the reason he says Labour will shy away from addressing divorce appears to be a fear of having the Church being dragged into the debate by the Nationalist party. “When the Nationalist party is ready to still use the Church in the 21st century, it would use these controversial issues for votes rather than to have a frank debate. As somebody in public life, the more civil society takes up an autonomous voice the better it will be. This country has had two dominant parties for too long, to which people look up in hope that initiative will come from the top.
“Last week in Italy as I was meeting some top politicians, the chat was about nothing but Beppe Grillo,” he says about Italy’s premier satirist who has branded his list of independent politicians and threatens to imbibe politicians with his own medicine – laughter. “That’s interesting,” Bartolo surmises although stopping there, as if to imply what power Grillo, a comedian, could command in the political hinterland, an unlikely prospect in this part of the Mediterranean.
In this changing landscape of politics, where issues seem to concern only better management and tweaking the buttons of the economic machine, it is hardly surprising to see any other value given little importance. When we talk about immigration, and Labour’s support of government’s detention policy, Bartolo is quick to point out that “the left is facing this everywhere” when it comes to the European socialists’ changing position on immigration, at best a debatable point. “It’s becoming also an issue of multi-ethnicity, security and even crime although we haven’t encountered this problem yet,” he says, mentioning the Albanian mafia in Umbria.
But he sets the tone instantly when he fails to mention refugee protection and human rights. “But we have a realistic viewpoint of this issue,” he rebuts. “I don’t know if it’s progressive or conservative. I doubt how anyone living on a small island with the problems we have can take an armchair position by just talking about abstract values…”
What about your unquestioning support of the detention policy? Bartolo has witnessed the pitiful state of the detainees’ conditions: wouldn’t Labour be ideologically inclined to address the protection concern at least?
“We would definitely look towards the EU. We are paying the price for our geographical caprice, despite not being migrants’ ultimate destination, which is Europe. So the EU should certainly help us. We will press for that. And even improve the conditions for the people over here. And push the EU for a better policy of Africa,” Bartolo says, touching up on a subject not yet part of the Maltese political landscape. “It will have to tackle the question at source.”
That being said, he concedes that communicating the phenomenon of migration to the Labour electorate is problematic – “It is a natural reaction of many to express their discontent. But civilisation takes time to evolve. It would be reckless of us to take the populist approach. We have to address their fears and question their fears – are refugees and migrants really taking their jobs?
“Because Maltese jobs are endangered by many other factors and people from other parts of the world – you have to be a bit frank and courageous, breaking down the problem into what is perceived and real. It’s not easy – racism is a challenge which has to be tackled seriously. Malta is part of a world which is becoming a multi-ethnic place, and as a frontier society we’re no bridge between Europe and Africa. We’re a fortification.”