MaltaToday Survey | Labour sheds support as PN edges up

The Labour Party has shed support over the past two weeks with a MaltaToday survey suggesting a delayed impact of the political crisis that has rocked the country.

The survey puts support for the PL at 41.5%, a drop of almost two points in just two weeks. The survey was conducted between Monday 16 December and Friday 20 December. The previous survey was conducted between Monday 2 December and Friday 6 December, the week just after Joseph Muscat announced he will resign in January.

In the first December survey, the party was relatively unscathed by the scandalous revelations that emerged in court and which implicated the Prime Minister’s former chief-of-staff in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

However, information emerging in court since then and the European Parliament’s massive thumbs down to Joseph Muscat over his refusal to leave immediately, appear to have contributed to the loss of support.

Although the decrease is still within the margin of error, a two-point drop in just a fortnight indicates that the impact of the crisis is only now starting to be felt.

The PL’s decline came at the expense of the Nationalist Party that continued its upward trajectory, gaining two points in two weeks.

The PN’s support now stands at 29.5%, its highest result since the beginning of May.

The Opposition party has gained six points since October, in what is its longest stretch of gains since October 2017.

The gap between the parties is still a significant 12 points but the latest survey suggests that the PL has been dented by the crisis.

To what extent this rebalancing of party strengths will continue has to be seen, also within the context of what could still emerge in court and the eventual outcome of the PL leadership race.

PL loses ground in Northern Harbour

The PL leads in Gozo, the Northern region, the Southern Harbour and South-East, and the Western region. However, it is only in its traditional southern and south eastern strongholds that the PL has managed an absolute majority.

In Gozo and the Western region, the gap between the two major parties is well within the margin of error.

The PN leads in the Northern Harbour region, where it posts its strongest result (39.2%).

The PL maintains its supremacy over the PN across all age groups. The party in government manages to retain 81.8% of those who voted for it in the last general election, while the PN has managed to retain 74.3% of those who voted for it.