WATCH | A victory for the history books

The Labour Party’s fourth consecutive victory is a historic first for any political party in Malta since the advent of self-government in 1921.

The closest to such a feat was the PL itself with three victories in 1971, 1977 and 1981; and the Nationalist Party with three victories in 1998, 2003 and 2008. Nonetheless, in each of these three-victory runs, the last election always proved tricky.

In 1981, the PL had won the election on the strength of parliamentary seats despite not having a majority of votes. Indeed, that election led to a politically-turbulent period until 1987. In the 1987 election, one of the memorable photos that stood out was that of the late Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici flashing four fingers, a predicament that never materialised because the PN won that election.

In 2008, the PN’s third consecutive victory was by a relative majority of votes that gave it a one-seat majority in parliament, leading to a tumultous five years of internal conflict that eventually brought down the government in 2012.

On the contrary, the PL’s fourth consecutive victory with a margin of around 18,000 votes is significant and comes on the back of three super majorities.

Since 2013, the PL has managed to secure general election victories with a gap upward of 30,000 votes, ushering in an era of super majorities unparalleled in recent political history. The gap in the 2026 election represents a drastic reduction from the 39,000-vote super majority the PL obtained in the 2022 election.

Although the super majority era appears to have come to an end, an 18,000-vote gap is still a comfortable majority as much as it is a humbling reduction.

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