Torca runs front-page survey that says 46% want Muscat to stay on

Is this Joseph Muscat’s last stand?

The General Workers Union weekly It-Torca has ran a front-page splash with a survey carried out by reputable statistician Vincent Marmarà that shows Labour still well ahead in national polls.

The arraignment of the Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, charged with masterminding the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia was relegated to a ‘solus’ teaser on the front page of the newspaper, which is historically aligned with Labour.

At the nadir of the Muscat administration, with the prime minister expected to announce his exit on Sunday, the poll has indicated that Labour enjoys the trust of 55.5% of the population, while the Nationalist Party still languish at 42.7% - which still gives Labour its 40,000 majority it clinched in the 2017 election.

The survey also polled people on whether Muscat should resign: 21% said they did not know, with 32.4% insisting he should step down, but 46.5% said he should stay on.

The question put to those who voted in Labour in 2017 revealed that 89.9% wanted him to stay on, and just 5.4% wanted him to resign. PN voters in 2017 were clear that Muscat should resign (73.6%), but 20% said they were unsure, and only 6.4% said he should stay on.

On Facebook, Marmarà pointed out that the survey was just a snapshot and that many things may yet change. “Everything is dependent on whether new facts will emerge… this is not my personal opinion but the political perception of people. I leave it up to the public and experts to make their analysis. Is it the right time for such a survey? Surely it’s not the right time to understand this result in light of the next election in 2022, but one can understand what the people think right now in such an extraordinary situation.”