Labour leader Joseph Muscat enjoys a better trust rating than Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, even if his rating dipped by 9% in the past four months – a clear indication that the honeymoon period since his election is over for good
Muscat still more trusted than Gonzi but loses 9% in four months
James Debono
For the second consecutive time in MaltaToday’s surveys, Labour leader Joseph Muscat enjoys a better trust rating than Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, even if his rating dipped by 9% in the past four months – a clear indication that the honeymoon enjoyed by Muscat after his election as Labour leader is over.
The last trust barometer survey was held just 100 days after Muscat was elected leader.
Despite a dip in support, he still manages to overturn one of his party’s major disadvantages when Alfred Sant was leader. Gonzi used to enjoy a better trust rating than Sant in all MaltaToday surveys held since September 2005.
In the same period, Gonzi also saw his trust rating dip from 31% to 28%. The decrease in levels of trust enjoyed by the leaders of the two major political parties corresponds to a 4.6% increase in the number of respondents who do not trust any of the two leaders. The number of ‘don’t knows’ has also increased by 7.5 percentage points.
Muscat has also managed to make strategic inroads among respondents who voted for the PN in the March elections – 10.1% of respondents who claim to have voted PN in the last election now trust Muscat more than Gonzi. Only 1.3% of Labour voters trust Gonzi more than Sant.
Dolores Cristina on top, Gatt and Pullicino hit rock bottom
Despite presiding over a radical education reform set to diminish streaming and the importance of exams, Education and Culture Minister Dolores Cristina remains the most popular Nationalist minister, even among Labour voters.
A MaltaToday survey in which respondents rated government ministers instead saw PN hard-man Austin Gatt hit rock bottom, evidently taking the brunt of the unpopular hike in energy tariffs.
And despite being divested of responsibility for MEPA by the Prime Minister, George Pullicino remains unpopular despite his less controversial ministry for fisheries, agriculture and the resources authority.
Surprisingly, Social Policy and Health Minister John Dalli edges close to Cristina in the popularity rankings, when just over a year ago he was still in the political wilderness after being forced to resign in 2004 due to allegations which turned out to be unfounded.
High marks for Dolores
Even in the previous Cabinet, Cristina as minister for the family and social solidarity always topped MaltaToday surveys as the most positively rated minister. She enjoyed a trust rating of 64.3% in October 2005, which slipped to 52.8% in April 2007 but still retaining top rank as the most favoured minister.
As education minister, Cristina is again rated the best minister by both Nationalist and Labour voters and only judged negatively by 8% of respondents… making her the least disliked minister in the Cabinet.
Since taking over the education portfolio, Cristina has pressed ahead with a radical reform which includes the phasing out of the much-criticised streaming system. The 11-plus exam, previously a precondition for entry into a Junior Lyceum, will now become a benchmark of pupils’ attainment. Instead the secondary school students will be taught in groups through a ‘setting’ mechanism, depending on their needs in different subjects, rather than being streamed into different classes as is the case now.
But Cristina has also seen a fair share of controversy, especially in the post-secondary level where the government’s promise of excellence in education and research did not prevent clashes with university lecturers in the long drawn out negotiations for a new collective agreement.
And a police investigation requested by shadow minister Evarist Bartolo also found a “careless” selection process by MCAST for the award of contracts to private IT tuition centres.
This could explain why Cristina no longer enjoys as much popularity as before (42.6%) even if she is still Gonzi’s most positively rated minister.
Dalli, the comeback kid After spending nearly three years in the political wilderness as a backbencher, John Dalli was only rehabilitated by the Prime Minister a few months before the election. Gone is the unsavoury reputation of the former finance minister as “Johnny Cash” – today he is the second most popular minister.
He even emerges second most popular among both Nationalist and Labour voters, an indication that his outspokenness on issues like divorce and hospital waiting lists was appreciated by the public. He was the first minister to call for a national debate on divorce and has described hospital waiting lists as “scandalous”. Dalli has also presided over rent reform, a process kept under the carpet before the last elections.
And during the launch of a new housing scheme in Pembroke, while being shown around spacious apartments with spectacular sea views he shocked those present when he denounced the housing project: “social housing should not mean building luxury apartments and giving them away for free.”
Still to leave their mark Judged negatively by only 8.1% of respondents, and favourably by 32.1%, the Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici emerges as the third most favoured minister.
But a considerable 36.8% could not rate his performance, showing he failed to strike a definitive mark with electorate. Responsible for the immigration detention centres and asylum policy, Mifsud Bonnici’s first action was to give journalists limited access to detention centres.
But he also had to contend with controversies related to episodes of alleged police brutality. One such case was the death of Nicholas Azzopardi, hospitalised after being held in police custody, and which was only revealed by MaltaToday. Subsequently a magisterial inquiry cleared the police of any wrongdoing in this case.
Despite serving as Gonzi’s second-in-command, Tonio Borg has also have failed to leave his mark. Among Nationalist voters he is even surpassed in popularity by Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, and comes in sixth place just before Austin Gatt and George Pullicino.
Significantly 38% could not even rate Tonio Borg’s performance as minister. This could also be an indication that foreign affairs is not a priority for many Maltese. So far his most controversial decision was resuming membership in NATO’s Partnership for Peace without consulting the Opposition.
The Finance Ministry curse The media-savvy Tonio Fenech comes out as the fourth least popular minister with only 28% of respondents rating him positively. With 20% of respondents judging his performance negatively, only Austin Gatt gets more negative ratings. Clearly Fenech is taking the brunt for most of the government’s difficult financial decisions, although he manages a strong media presence which compensates for the de facto unpopularity of finance minister.
Among Nationalist voters he manages to fare better than less controversial ministers like Tonio Borg and Giovanna Debono.
Doer or bulldozer? Respondents gave Austin Gatt the dual honour of earning the least favourable rating, and the most negative rating. He is also the only minister to get more negative than positive ratings.
While only 21% judged his performance positively, 33% expressed a negative judgement.
Gatt’s only consolation is that among Nationalist voters he is judged more positively than George Pullicino. During his term Gatt managed to galvanise public support when he stood up against the arrogance of the transport lobby during a one-week strike in which he emerged as the clear winner.
But his reputation was tarnished by his inability to comprehend popular anger against the new energy tariffs which coincided with a global fall in oil prices. Gatt also alienated environmentalists by proposing a new road which would overshadow the Ghadira nature reserve.
The MEPA legacy With MEPA taken away from his portfolio by the prime minister, George Pullicino has still not recovered his past popularity. A survey in April 2007 showed Pullicino’s approval rating had slipped by 17% between September 2005 and October 2007.
Although Pullicino now gets the same level of approval as the unpopular Austin Gatt (21%), his performance is judged less negatively than Gatt’s and Fenech’s. For while Gatt is judged negatively by 33% and Tonio Fenech by 20%, Pullicino’s performance is deemed negative by 16%. A significant portion of respondents (31%) judged his performance as ‘fair’.
So far the fisheries sector has generated most controversy for Pullicino, following MaltaToday’s damning revelations on the Mediterranean bluefin tuna farming sector.
Pullicino’s only significant action as Resources Minister was to introduce a registration scheme for illegal boreholes with the view of controlling abuses in this sector in the near future.
Methodology The survey was held between Monday 13 and Thursday 15 January. A total of 462 respondents were randomly chosen from the telephone directory. 300 accepted to be interviewed. The results were weighed according to the age and sex distribution of the census. The survey has a margin of error of +/-5.7%.
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