Raphael Vassallo
Norman Lowell, the far right candidate contesting on the most overtly anti-immigration platform of this campaign, looks set to emerge from the race with a respectable tally surpassing the 3,000 vote count.
Considering how much was stacked against him in this election, it remains a singular achievement. Lowell contested while still serving a suspended sentence for incitement to racial hatred. Like all political outsiders, he was denied the opportunity of a half-hour interview on a private TV station – with the Broadcasting Authority insisting on the participation of both PN and PL candidates in the name of “balance” – and apart from the occasional YouTube video clip, his entire campaign expenditure appears to have been limited to a single packet of balloons.
And yet, he has overtaken rival anti-immigration party Azzjoni Nazzjonali – founded by former Nationalist MP Josie Muscat – and at the time of writing looks set to equal, if not actually surpass, Arnold Cassola of the Greens.
While not exactly unexpected, the Lowell trend was not picked up by various polls and surveys before Saturday’s vote. MaltaToday had placed his showing as an undefined portion of the “others” – a category which also included Cecil Herbert Jones and Nazzarenu Bonnici.
As in other European countries, it seems that a substantial portion of far right sympathisers either refused to participate in polls outright, or else registered their voting intention as ‘undecided’. It is therefore difficult to profile the typical Lowell supporter by any category other than skin colour and/or ethnicity.
Apart from genuine admirers and Imperium Europa ideologues, there will no doubt have been those who voted Norman Lowell on the strength of what he has come to represent in the collective psyche (rather than what he may have realistically achieved in the EP).
A protest vote for Norman Lowell speaks volumes to its intended recipient, the government of Malta. Having contested squarely and exclusively on the immigration ticket, there can be no mistaking the general cause of the voter’s disgruntlement. And while none but the seriously deranged will expect Lawrence Gonzi to adopt any of Lowell’s own policy platforms – which include a full-scale blockade of Malta, and the expulsion from Europe of all citizens of African descent – the message is nonetheless clear.
A sizeable portion of Nationalist voters is dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the immigration issue. Their number remains small, but it is nonetheless large enough to swing an election. And it can only be expected to grow.
From this perspective, the only likely lesson to be taken on board by the two main parties is that the so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between Gonzi and Sant – supposedly broken by Joseph Muscat in this election – is now null and void.
With over 3,000 votes in the balance, the extreme right wing vote can no longer be ignored, as it has been in the past. And as 2013 approaches apace, we can only expect a gradual hardening of the mainstream parties’ line on immigration.
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