Immigration
Arguably the most serious concern of the Maltese people, the burgeoning irregular immigration phenomenon remains the country’s number one unmentionable issue. Both parties are caught between two stools on this one: unwilling to risk the ire of an increasingly impatient electorate, but only too well aware that the wacko “solutions” proposed by Norman Lowell and Josie Muscat will never be acceptable to the international community.
On the few occasions when politicians of both sides broke this impasse, the precariousness of their respective party lines became visible to all. Joe Sammut (MLP) and Franco Galea (PN) saw their profile rise with the xenophobic right after their furious outbursts in Parliament; in both cases, though, their own parties sheepishly disowned them.
Having said that, it remains a potentially explosive issue. The government’s policies seem to contradict its leader’s constant allusions to Christian generosity; Labour, on other hand, appears keen on displaying a hard-nosed attitude towards immigration, but is aware that this would also undermine its supposedly Socialist credo.
With neither side willing to commit itself to a clear policy, and public exasperation steadily mounting, there is a real danger of a haemorrhage to the far right. As the election approaches, both Labour and PN will surely be tempted to break the deadlock and adopt the immigration issue as their own.

Divorce
Once a social taboo, the thorny issue of “what God hath joined together” has slowly been torn asunder by an explosion in failed marriages in recent years. Statistics now suggest that for every new marriage, one earlier one will be breaking up; and that a country once unified in its opposition to divorce is now evenly split on the issue.
Divorce remains anathema to the Christian Democrat government. For the Opposition, however, it is a different story. Soon after taking office in 1996, Dr Alfred Sant had appointed a commission to study the possibility of its introduction. History took its course, and after failing to complete his full term, an embittered Sant complained of being let down by the liberal minority.
Divorce is now a non-issue for the MLP, and the shadow cast by President Fenech Adami over the Nationalist party, while slowly weakening, is still strong enough to stave off any thought of a dramatic last minute U-turn.
Of the smaller parties, only Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) has consistently campaigned on the divorce ticket: a position which has earned the Green party some respect, but not many votes to date.

Rent reform
If ever there was an issue which exposed the political stalemate, this has to be the one.
Enacted in distant 1939, the archaic rent regime today translates into numerous properties – some used for commercial purposes on the island’s most expensive retail sites – bound by pre-war rent rates. Owners who receive less than €100 annually in rent, and who cannot legally evict their tenants, are also held responsible for maintenance which can run into thousands of euros a year.
The injustice is visible to all, and while a change was indeed made by the PN after 1987, in practice it only affected properties coming onto the market after 1995.
Championed incessantly by AD, the crusade for rent law reform is gradually uniting a common front of disgruntled middle class voters, and consistently returns to haunt a Nationalist administration which has never quite delivered on endless promises of a White Paper. But the Labour Party’s deafening silence, on an issue which can only irk the traditionally left-leaning social cases, means that rent reform is unlikely to take a front seat in the coming election campaign.

Hunting
Last March’s fiasco protest revealed the limitations of the hunters’ lobby in the new context of EU membership. It is now apparent that any notion of placating both the hunters and the European Commission is out of the question… although the PN, already committed to fighting the EC in court, might be tempted to keep up the bluff at least until the election.
Alfred Sant has already committed himself on State TV to fully observe the Birds Directive; but with Azzjoni Nazzjonali now throwing its (limited) weight behind the FKNK, and the PN’s credibility with hunter’s shot to smithereens by recent events, it is possible that some kind of attempt to court the lobby’s sizeable vote may be in the offing.
Whether the hunters will fall for the same old tricks yet again is, of course, another question.

Party financing
The issue of undeclared party donations, with all the whiff of corruption this inevitably brings with it, was resuscitated last year by PN general secretary Joe Saliba, who candidly admitted that his party accepted money from building contractors.
Against a backdrop of suspicion of a cosy relationship between Malta’s political and entrepreneurial class – which many feel is directly responsible for numerous illegalities, especially in the construction arena – pressure has been mounting for a reform of this anomalous situation.
But any change to the current free-for-all regime will cost the two parties an undisclosed fortune in cash and in kind. It is therefore understandable that neither is too keen on shining a spotlight on this unsightly blemish.

Abortion
In contrast to all the above, abortion is one issue which is of minimal concern to the population, and yet has been blown out of all proportion by the party in government in a transparent effort to place its rivals – especially the Green Party, to which the PN has lost some support of late – in an awkward position.
Abortion is illegal in Malta, and no feminist movement has ever demanded its introduction. The entire concept of female reproductive rights is alien, and yet Gonzi unaccountably chose to force the issue onto the national agenda by embracing the cause of a radical pro-life group modelled on, and supported by, the American Biblical right. So far the Opposition has failed to rise to the challenge, much to the aggressive disappointment of Gift of Life, now persistently pressuring Alfred Sant to cave in to their demands.
As the election draws near, the PN may well find itself evoking this purely phantom polemic as its last remaining trump card… although it is likely to alienate some of its own core support in the process.