Outsiders who try to understand the Maltese political scene would be forgiven for thinking that the local setup really does not make sense. People seem to select their political affiliation according to the tribe they come from. In fact it sometimes appears that you are “born” into your political leanings. Somehow, more often than not, ideologies do not appear to feature in the equation.
The Nationalist Party is supposed to be conservative while the Labour Party purportedly is liberal. This should imply that people with right wing views would gravitate towards PN, while leftists would find a natural home in Labour, which one would expect to be on the vanguard of issues such as gay rights and divorce.
In such a scenario, how to explain the fact that the first openly gay MP hailed from the right-leaning PN? The credentials of the Labour Party as the defender of gay rights was further dented by the photo that appeared in this paper a week ago – Cyrus Engerer, a gay Nationalist councillor in the Sliema local council, openly kissing his male lover during the Gay Pride parade in Valletta. Labour may have created an LGBT network, but the real strides in coming out and proud are being made by PN exponents not LP ones.
It does not stop there. The PN has strong Roman Catholic roots and official party policy is against divorce. Labour, on the other hand, proclaims that it is for the separation of church and state, with the leader of the party openly stating his pro-divorce views. So how can we not be confused to hear that it was in fact a Nationalist MP who presented a private member’s bill to force a serious discussion about divorce?
Let’s face it. People who have moderate liberal views in this country don’t really have a natural home. They could decide to join the PN bandwagon, in the belief that under the conservative shell there is a soft mushy liberal centre, or they could go for Labour, which on the face of it is progressive and moderate, but with some old-time conservative chips thrown in. One could say that Alternattiva is their best bet, but let’s face it, unfortunately the chances of AD getting someone elected in the near future is next to none.
In this country what you see is almost never what you get.