Promises Made in Season: Neither Party Means It
The hunting lobby got what it wanted this week — promises from both major parties that their ancient privileges will survive whoever wins in October.
Promises Made in Season: Neither Party Means It
The hunting lobby got what it wanted this week — promises from both major parties that their ancient privileges will survive whoever wins in October. Alex Borg for Labour, Silvio Schembri for the Nationalists, each delivering the same reassurance to the same small constituency that has held Malta's environmental policy hostage for decades.
This is how it works now. Not policy debate, not public interest — just the quiet arithmetic of who shows up to vote and who threatens to stay home. The hunters organise. They remember. They exact their price election after election while the rest of Malta watches cranes multiply and coastlines disappear and wonders why their voices never seem to carry the same weight.
Meanwhile, residents in three localities dragged the government to court over what they call "zombie" development permits — expired authorisations being quietly resurrected through legal notices that bypass proper planning procedures. Kalkara, St Julian's, Għargħur — places where people still believe their neighbourhoods shouldn't be auctioned to the highest bidder without so much as a public hearing.
The legal challenge targets a mechanism that lets developers dust off old permits like vintage wine, regardless of whether the original approvals made sense when Malta had half its current population and a fraction of its traffic. It's the kind of technical fix that sounds boring until you realise it's how your street becomes a construction site overnight.
In Mellieħa, District 12 voters are asking about traffic bottlenecks that turn their daily commute into endurance sport. In St Paul's Bay, they want to know why crime feels closer than it used to. These are the conversations happening in parish halls and coffee shops while party headquarters calculate hunting votes and construction permits.
The disconnect runs deeper than electoral tactics. It sits in the space between what politicians promise in May and what gets built in November. Between the photo opportunities with environmental groups and the quiet meetings where real decisions happen. Between the Malta that gets marketed and the Malta that gets lived in.
Police deported three men this week, including a Macedonian with a domestic violence conviction who somehow thought a Schengen ban wouldn't follow him back across the border. Small enforcement, barely noticed — but it suggests someone somewhere still takes European cooperation seriously, even when it's inconvenient.
The hunting promises will be forgotten by Christmas. The zombie permits will multiply. The traffic will get worse. But the residents filing lawsuits understand something both parties seem to have misplaced: that democracy isn't just about winning elections. Sometimes it's about showing up in court with a stack of papers and asking a simple question — who gave you permission to trade away our future?
