MaltaToday Survey | Labour unscathed by crisis that has rocked Castille

The political crisis caused by the dark shadow of murder on Castille does not appear to have dented the Labour Party’s support, a MaltaToday survey found.

The party in government enjoys the support of 43.1%, a dip of one point over the November survey.

But the results also show that the Nationalist Party has failed to capitalise on the widespread anger and turmoil caused by the damning revelations that have pushed Joseph Muscat to resign.

The PN enjoys the support of 27.6%, an increase of less than a percentage point. The gap between the parties stands at 15.5 points.

The survey was conducted between Monday 2 December and Friday 6 December. It was held in the week immediately after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that he would be stepping down after businessman Yorgen Fenech implicated his former chief-of-staff Keith Schembri in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The result gives a snapshot of the popular mood at this juncture but it also falls in line with the trend that has been registered since the last general election.

The PL trumps the PN across all age groups, among men and women, and across all regions bar one.

In the Western region, the PN overtakes the PL with 39.9% of support against 35.2%.

However, contrary to previous surveys it is only in one region that the PL’s support hits an absolute majority – the Southern Harbour area, a traditional bastion of Labour support, where the PL registers 58.9%.

The PL also retains 84.4% of those who voted for it in the last general election, as opposed to the PN, where the retention rate is 65.2%. There are also 2.1% of 2017 PN voters who say they will vote Labour but only 0.6% of PL voters who will switch allegiance.

The PN is still hounded by a large section of its support base that insists it will not vote (16.7%) or is unsure how to vote (12.8%).

The survey suggests that despite the political crisis that has rocked the Labour government, people are still not seeing a viable alternative.

The results broadly tally with the findings of a survey published by It-Torċa last week, which put the PL on the same margin of victory it obtained in the 2017 general election.