2019 European Parliament election in Malta

The 2019 European Parliament election was held in Malta on 25 May 2019.[1] 8 different political parties took part in the elections, of which, only 2 won seats in the European Parliament; the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, with 4 and 2 seats respectively.[2]

2019 European Parliament election in Malta
25 May 2019
All 6 Maltese seats in the European Parliament
Turnout74.8%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Joseph Muscat Adrian Delia
Party Labour Nationalist
Last election 53%
3 seats		 40%
3 seats
Seats won 4 2
Seat change 1 1
Popular vote 141,267 98,611
Percentage 54.29% 37.9%
EP Group S&D EPP

Contesting Parties

Alleanza Bidla

Ivan Grech Mintoff and Rebecca Dalli Gonzi contested on behalf of Alleanza Bidla.[3] a conservative Christian and Eurosceptic party.

Brain, not ego

Antoine P. Borg contested on behalf of fledgling political party Brain, not ego.[4]

Democratic Alternative

Democratic Alternative announced the approval of its 3 European parliamentary election candidates. They were: Arnold Cassola, Mina Tolu and Carmel Cacopardo.[5] In the wake of a dispute regarding the topic of abortion, Cassola resigned from Democratic Alternative and contested the EP election as an independent candidate.[6][7][8]

Democratic Party

The Democratic Party announced the approval of its 4 European parliamentary election candidates, They were: Martin Cauchi Inglott,[9] Anthony Buttigieg, Godfrey Farrugia[10] and Camilla Appelgren.

Imperium Europa

Norman Lowell announced that he would once again contest the European parliamentary election after Imperium Europa was officially registered with the Electoral Commission.[11]

Independent

Arnold Cassola announced that he would contest the European parliamentary election as an independent candidate.[6][7][8] Stephen Florian announced that he would contest as an Independent candidate after resigning from the executive of Moviment Patrijotti Maltin.[12] Other independent candidates included Nazzareno Bonnici (Tal-Ajkla), Mario Borg and Joseph Aquilina.

Labour Party

The Labour Party announced the approval of its 14 European parliamentary election candidates. They were: Alfred Sant, Mary Gauci, Lorna Vassallo, Robert Micallef, Cyrus Engerer, Alex Agius Saliba, Felix Busuttil, Miriam Dalli, James Grech, Joe Sammut, Josianne Cutajar, Fleur Vella, Noel Cassar and Josef Caruana.[13]

Moviment Patrijotti Maltin

Simon Borg and Naged Magelly contested on behalf of Moviment Patrijotti Maltin, an offshoot of the anti-immigration group Għaqda Patrijotti Maltin led by Henry Battistino which campaigns against irregular migration, Malta's participation in the Schengen Area, and Islam in Malta.

Nationalist Party

The Nationalist Party announced the approval of its 10 European parliamentary election candidates. They were: Roberta Metsola, David Casa, Francis Zammit Dimech, Peter Agius, Dione Borg, Michael Briguglio, Frank Psaila, Roselyn Borg Knight, Michael Mercieca[10] and David Stellini.[14]

Opinion polls

Expressing a preference

The values in the table below are derived by removing non-party responses (i.e. non-voters and "don't know"); as the margin is also recalculated, there may be slight differences in exact lead margins due to rounding.

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size		 PL PN PD AD IE MPM Others Lead
2019 election 25 May 2019 – 54.3 37.9 2.0 0.7 3.2 0.3 1.6 16.4
Sagalytics 11–17 May 2019 600 56.9 37.3 1.1 2.0 1.7 – 1.1 19.6
MaltaToday 9–15 May 2019 849 57.8 39.1 0.4 1.0 1.5 0.1 0.0 18.8
MISCO 8–11 May 2019 402 55.0 40.0 <1 <1 – – 3.4 15.0
MaltaToday 25 Apr–3 May 2019 602 58.0 38.1 1.1 1.3 1.6 0.0 0.0 19.8
Sagalytics 23 Apr–2 May 2019 600 55.2 39.0 – – – – 5.8 16.2
MaltaToday 28 Mar–4 Apr 2019 597 62.5 37.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 25.0
MISCO 27–29 Mar 2019 402 59 37 2 2 – – – 22
MaltaToday 22–27 Feb 2019 598 59.5 38.4 1.3 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 21.1
MaltaToday 21–28 Jan 2019 597 62.6 36.4 0.4 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 26.2
2014 election 25 May 2014 – 53.4 40.0 – 2.9 2.7 – 1.0 13.4

Complete data
Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size		 PL PN PD AD IE MPM Others Lead Not
voting		 Don't
know/invalid
2019 election 25 May 2019 – 38.0 26.5 1.4 0.5 2.2 0.2 1.1 11.5 27.3 2.6
Sagalytics 11–17 May 2019 600 56.9 37.3 1.1 2.0 1.7 – 1.1 19.6 – –
MaltaToday 9–15 May 2019 849 41.3 27.9 0.3 0.7 1.1 0.1 0.0 13.4 9.2 18.6
MISCO 8–11 May 2019 402 41.4 30.1 <0.8 <0.8 – – 2.6 11.3 22.0 11.0
MaltaToday 25 Apr–3 May 2019 602 44.1 29.0 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.0 15.1 9.8 12.4
Sagalytics 23 Apr–2 May 2019 600 55.2 39.0 – – – – 5.8 16.2 – –
MaltaToday 28 Mar–4 Apr 2019 597 41.8 25.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 13.8 17.3
MISCO 27–29 Mar 2019 402 40 25 1.5 1.5 – – – 15 32 –
MaltaToday 22–27 Feb 2019 598 42.3 27.3 0.9 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.0 13.2 13.9
MaltaToday 21–28 Jan 2019 597 42.0 24.4 0.3 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 17.6 12.8 19.3
2014 election 25 May 2014 – 39.0 29.3 – 2.2 2.0 – 0.7 13.4 26.9 –

Results

Shortly after the first exit polls were announced, it was thought that Labour Party had a majority of 51,600 votes over the Nationalist Party, but this was later decreased to 42,656 after the official results came out.[15] Although a large majority for Labour was expected, as well as Labour winning 4 out of 6 seats, the majority was unexpected and historic.[16] Adrian Delia, the leader of the opposition, conceded defeat. He did state, however, that he would not resign because of the result and that his aim was still the next Maltese general election.[17] Although the far right party Imperium Europa increased their vote share from 2.68% in the 2014 European Parliament election to 3.17% (at 8,335 votes) in the current election, this was far less than initially thought by the Maltese media, who had thought that they had received about 15,000 votes.[18] The Democratic Party on the other hand, the only third party in the Maltese Parliament, only managed to get 5,276 votes, with Cami Appelgren defying expectations by not only getting 3,052 votes, but also beating her own party leader Godfrey Farrugia, who only managed to get 1,668 votes.[19]

Results of the 2019 European Parliament election in Malta[20]
Party European

Group

 Votes % +/- Seats +/-
Labour Party (PLM) S&D 141,267 54.29% +0.9% 4 1
Nationalist Party (PNM) EPP 98,611 37.90% -2.12% 2 1
Imperium Europa (IE) NI 8,238 3.17% +0.49% 0
Democratic Party (PDM) ALDE 5,276 2.03% new 0
Democratic Alternative (AD) G/EFA 1,866 0.72% -2.23% 0
Alleanza Bidla (AB) ECR 1,186 0.46% +0.06% 0
Moviment Patrijotti Maltin (MPM) ENF 771 0.3% new 0
Brain, not ego (BNE) 323 0.12% new 0
Independents
  • Arnold Cassola
  • Nazareno Bonnici
  • Stephen Florian
  • Joseph Aquilina
  • Mario Borg
 2,674
  • 2,127
  • 376
  • 106
  • 43
  • 22
 1.03%
  • 0.82
  • 0.14
  • 0.04
  • 0.02
  • 0.01
 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
Total 260,160 100.0% 6

The elected candidates were:

MEPs elected[21][22]
Candidate Party 1st Pref. Count
Miriam Dalli PL 63,438 1
Roberta Metsola PN 38,206 1
Alfred Sant PL 26,592 14
David Casa PN 20,493 38
Alex Agius Saliba PL 18,808 39
Josianne Cutajar PL 15,603 39

References
  1. "Next MEP election dates confirmed for May 2019". MaltaToday.com.mt. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  2. "2019 European election results". election-results.eu. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  3. "Mintoff and Gonzi back in politics".
  4. "New independent political party for EP elections: 'Brain, not ego' - The Malta Independent". independent.com.mt. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
  5. Mina_Tolu (2018-11-17). "Alternattiva Demokratika – Kandidati Parlament Ewropew 2019". Mina Tolu (in Maltese). Retrieved 2018-12-24.
  6. "Updated: Cassola resigns from AD in wake of abortion dispute; 'you're wrong', Cacopardo says - The Malta Independent". independent.com.mt. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  7. Ltd, Allied Newspapers. "Cassola resigns from AD after 30 years, citing differences over abortion". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  8. Mallia, Mathias (2019-02-17). "Updated: "From today on, I will walk my political journey alone" - Cassola". Newsbook. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  9. "[WATCH] Retired army officer to contest MEP elections with Partit Demokratiku". MaltaToday.com.mt. Retrieved 2018-12-24.
  10. "Explainer The European Parliament elections and the Maltese candidates". maltatoday.com.mt. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  11. "Imperium Europa approved as a political party, Norman Lowell to contest MEP elections".
  12. "'Qed nirriżenja mill-Moviment Patrijotti Maltin u se naħdem bħala politiku indipendenti' - Stephen Florian".
  13. "Labour Party Unveils 14 MEP Candidates For 2019 Elections". lovinmalta.com. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  14. "PN approves first group of candidates to contest MEP election". MaltaToday.com.mt. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  15. "Official results out, Labour lead trimmed to 42,656". www.timesofmalta.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  16. "Historic victory for Labour as PN supporters score an own goal by staying away". www.timesofmalta.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  17. "Delia says his target remains 2022 election". www.timesofmalta.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  18. "Far-right candidates gain fewer votes than feared". www.timesofmalta.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  19. "Clean-up campaigner Cami Appelgren beats her own party leader". www.maltatoday.com.mt. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  20. "MEP Election - 2019". Malta Electoral Commission.
  21. "Being elected 'not a prize, but a duty' – President tells MEPs; Casa, Metsola miss meeting". Malta Independent.
  22. "MEP Election - 2019". Malta Electoral Commission.
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