TMID Editorial: No break from politics
There was a time when, in certain periods of the year, there used to be a political lull.It happened mostly during the Christmas and New Year weeks, but also in the middle of summer, around the middle of August when most people would be on holiday.It
There was a time when, in certain periods of the year, there used to be a political lull.
It happened mostly during the Christmas and New Year weeks, but also in the middle of summer, around the middle of August when most people would be on holiday.
It was also the practice, for many years, that political parties used to remain silent from the Sunday preceding Christmas to the Sunday after the New Year, two whole weeks during which no press statements were issued and the general population was allowed to celebrate the festivities free of political propaganda.
This period of "silence" at times also extended between the day Parliament stopped for its Christmas recess until it resumed its functions in early January.
It is no longer so, mostly because in this day and age of social media, it is hard to stop. Even if newspapers are not published - some stop for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, others also on New Year's Day and 2 January - there are still online portals and other digital media platforms that remain active.
This situation has by and large pushed political parties to remain active 365 days a year. And we have also noticed that this happens not only in years that are close to an election, but all throughout the legislature. By political parties we do not only mean the organisations themselves, but also the individual MPs, other officials and future candidates who find every possible excuse to be present.
During the last days of 2024 and the first week of 2025, both the Labour Party and Nationalist Party inundated media houses with press statements. To be fair, oftentimes the Labour Party felt compelled to answer the PN. This in its own way shows that the PN chose to remain very active during the Christmas holidays, with the Labour Party also maintaining its regular presence in the media.
There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Political parties are doing their job. We are just highlighting how things have changed over the last decade or so, ever since the social media took over much of our lives. It's just another example that exposes the impact that social media has had on everything we do.
This has, of course, pushed individual politicians to be much more "invasive" in our lives. There were times when we used to see them at the village festa or when they came knocking on doors in the months preceding an election. Now we know what they eat, where they go and what other hobbies they have as no occasion is lost by them to tell us what they have been doing. Even if it is just a plate of spaghetti their partner cooked for them.
This year, then, it took just three days of the New Year for the country to be thrown into a highly-charged political mood as news emerged that the conclusion of a public inquiry will result in the arraignment of people like former Minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.
So, really and truly, the year started with another bang. But more on that some other time.
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