MaltaToday Survey | Support for Gozo tunnel project still running high

Agreement with a Gozo-Malta tunnel cuts across all age groups, men and women and across all regions

60.9% of people are in favour of the Gozo tunnel project, a MaltaToday survey has found
60.9% of people are in favour of the Gozo tunnel project, a MaltaToday survey has found

Support for a tunnel linking Gozo and Malta has remained stable with 60.9% of people in favour of the project, a MaltaToday survey found.

The survey held in May came six months after a similar survey last year put support for the Gozo tunnel at 63.1%.

During the period, environmental groups intensified their criticism of the proposed project, Parliament unanimously backed a resolution supporting it and geological studies were published.

The latest survey shows that agreement with a Gozo-Malta tunnel cuts across all age groups, men and women and across all regions. The findings are very similar to those of the November survey.

Support for the tunnel project is highest in Gozo, where 72.5% agree with it. There are 20.6% of Gozitans who disagree.

In the November survey, there were almost a quarter of Gozitans undecided about the tunnel but these have now shrunk to 7% with those against growing by 11 points and those in favour increasing by seven points.

The lowest support for the tunnel project was registered in the Northern region with 53.7% and the Western region, where support ran at 53.8%.

The strongest support after Gozo was registered in the Southern Harbour region with 67.6% agreeing with a tunnel connecting both islands.

The latest survey was held between 9 May and 15 May, along with the survey of voting intentions linked to the European Parliament election.

The proposed tunnel would have portals just below Nadur, in Gozo, and l-Imbordin, in Malta. The planning application for this project still has to be submitted.

Men were more likely than women to support the project. The survey found 62.3% of men and 59.2% of women agreed with the tunnel.

There is a marked difference in support when the data is analysed by political allegiance. Three quarters of people who voted for the Labour Party in the 2017 general election said they support the tunnel project, while 16.4% were against.

The situation was less clear-cut among people who voted for the Nationalist Party in 2017, which could explain the party’s incoherent stand on the project.

A relative majority of 46.8% of PN voters agreed with the tunnel but 43% disagreed, while the rest were unsure.

Methodology

The survey was carried out between Thursday 9 May and Wednesday 15 May. 849 respondents opted to complete the telephone survey. Stratified random sampling based on gender, region and age was used to replicate the Maltese demographics. The estimated margin of error is 4.2% for a confidence interval of 95%.