The country that wants to have its cake and eat it

In the latest Eurobarometer survey, which was published earlier on Wednesday, Maltese citizens sent mixed signals in their responses – some of which point towards preferences which are at odds with both the country’s actual direction and with broader reality.

This year’s edition of the survey focused on European citizens’ outlook on the future, their sense of security and safety, the EU’s role in protecting its citizens, and people’s priorities in general. The survey was carried out throughout November and December of last year.

Clear trends within the data show that Maltese citizens displayed an above-average level of optimism about the future.

The chart below illustrates those figures – (EU27) refers to the average percentages scored across all member states, while (MT) refers to the local result.

Indeed, Malta’s optimism ranks its population among the EU’s top four, right after Lithuania, Ireland, and Denmark.

In line with that same positive outlook on the future, the overwhelming majority of Maltese people also believe that the EU must do more to protect its citizens, and to a much greater degree than the average across all member states.

Even more than that, a near absolute majority of Maltese survey respondents, which numbered a total of 502 people, totally agree that EU member states should be more united when facing global challenges, that EU member states must generate more wealth and other resources to face those challenges, and that the EU should have a stronger voice at the international level.

So – the data shows that Maltese people are optimistic about our prospects as European member states. We seem to be convinced that Europe must roll up its sleeves and put up a unified front in the face of increasingly aggressive superpowers across the globe.

Where does the other shoe drop?

Despite the optimism, Maltese people also experience above-average levels of concern about security, safety, various forms of disinformation, public health, and the environment, to name a few.

More specifically, 81% of local respondents rated “uncontrolled migration flows” as a security issue that they are highly worried about, the highest score among all concerns listed in the Eurobarometer’s dataset and significantly higher than the 65% average recorded across all member states.

The next top two security concerns on Maltese people’s minds were cyber attacks from non-EU countries (80%, compared to EU average of 66%) and active wars and conflicts near the European Union (79%, compared to an EU average of 72%).

The same pattern of above-average worry repeats itself when Maltese respondents were asked about which communication and society-related concerns they think are most pressing.

The top three concerns flagged by locals were deliberately misleading AI-generated content, disinformation, and the proliferation of hate speech, both online and offline.

When viewed from this perspective, a plausible scenario emerges from the data: Maltese people are hopeful for a prosperous future built on collaborative effort, and they are keenly aware of the shared threats which make that kind of future less likely.

There is just one problem – or rather, several of them.

On the international stage, the very same one in which Maltese people want more European unity, assertiveness, and collective responsibility, the Maltese government instead appears keen to hedge its bets on belligerent superpowers like the US. Following internal backlash, the Prime Minister has now started to water down his commitment to US-led initiatives.

Where Maltese people want more pooling of resources to better defend against external threats, the Maltese government has proven to be reluctant, providing only very limited assistance to war-torn countries like Ukraine and Palestine and shouldering a much smaller burden than other European countries who stepped up to the plate.

As for the biggest concerns flagged by Maltese people, the gulf between the willingness to contribute to solutions versus the mere acknowledgement of the need for those solutions becomes even greater.

Malta’s response to the humanitarian crisis of irregular migration was closing off access to its borders, reducing arrivals and ramping up deportation efforts, and spending decades putting people through a grueling detention regime.

Tweaks in the country’s labour migration policy are a belated, failed attempt at avoiding the replacement of one type of influx with another.

Rather than prioritising international solidarity with countries facing wars of aggression and other crises, the Maltese government consistently chooses to navigate diplomatic exchanges like simple transactions where a lack of commitment to putting up a united front is passed off as a cunning strategy.

While it is tempting to relegate global problems to the backburner in a country that’s a small fish in a big pond, Malta’s dependence on stability and peace – coupled with the general public’s awareness of the problems on Europe’s doorstep – should serve as a glaring reminder that our country cannot simply expect to rely on international collaboration when its government is so unwilling to seriously participate in it.