Mark Anthony Sammut: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of Maltese politics

From a reader of this blog

When still a student at university, our lecturers and professors used to ask us to analyse and compare actions by the same individual over the years. And this is what I shall be doing in this article. I shall be analysizing Mark Anthony Sammut’s actions and political deeds. In this exercise, I shall be comparing his talks and reactions to  the electoral defeat of the 2019 European elections with what he has to say now after the Nationalists, under Bernard Grech, lost the 2022 general election.

Faced with the European Parliamentary defeat in 2019, Mark Anthony Sammut described the outcome as a “disastrous result” and declared  that the only way forward was for those responsible to shoulder political responsibility.

In 2022, the Nationalist Party has had another disastrous result and Mark Anthony Sammut is still in a position of power within the Party. In 2019, he was the president of the Executive. In 2022, he is president of the General Council. This time round, he states, and here I am quoting from the Malta Independent, “that it is not the right time for the Nationalist Party to change leader and risk fragmentation”.

Malta Today also quoted Sammut who said that party leader Bernard Grech should be allowed to continue despite the electoral defeat. He added that “My only interest is to serve in my role as a new MP, be a voice for the two districts that elected me, and do my job as President of the PN General Council.”

This is completely different tune to what he stated  in 2019 when faced with a similar defeat. Back then he said that “The worst thing that we can do now is to refuse to face reality.” He continued to add that “For the first time in the last 15 years, the PN did not manage to maintain its 40% core vote, and for the first time since 1951 its popular support fell to just 37% of the electorate”. What is the result of the 2022 general electoral?

This time round the PN obtained the least number of popular votes in a general election since 1987. Back then, the number of eligible voters was 110,000 less than what it is today. At 41%, the PN obtained its worst general election result percentage-wise since 1955.

In 2019, Mark Anthony Sammut insisted that for the first time, the gap between the two parties was 16%. This time, Sammut was comparing the EU election with the one held in 2014. In 2014, the gap was was 14% in favour of Labour. In the EU elections of 2019, it went up to 16%. On the other hand, in 2017, Malta had the general local elections. The gap back then was 11% in favour of Labour. In 2022, it increased to 14%. Given that in 2022, the leader was Bernard Grech, the argument made by Mark Anthony Sammut in 2019 that such an increase in the gap between both parties was the fault of Adrian Delia does not hold waters. The gap got worse under Bernard Grech in 2022. The results obtained by Bernard Grech are the biggest general election gap registered in Maltese elections since 1955.

And what is the gap between Labour and the Nationalist party in 2022? For the first time in a general election since 1955, the gap between both parties is 14%.

Faced with a bad electoral result, following the European Elections in 2019, Sammut stated that it was an insult to collective intelligence to say that the party was expecting worse, and to be happy that the PN was, by far, the second biggest party.  Results show that the party suffered a disastrous defeat. 

And what is Sammut saying in 2022? He is repeating the same mantra his leader Bernard Grech is using. Despite the abysmal performance in the general election, Grech is saying that the Nationalist party is still the biggest party in opposition in Malta! Mark Anthony Sammut is now taking the same stand and is using Bernard Grech’s narrative saying that the Nationalist Party is still a large party. 

Sammut is also adding that Bernard Grech made important changes and this includes the regeneration of the Parliamentary Group, and for this reason, he believes that Grech should be allowed to continue building on this foundation. Is this not insulting the intelligence of the Maltese electorate? Why am I stating this?

In 2019, Mark Anthony Sammut vehemently affirmed that it was an insult to say that the party just needs some fine-tuning and a change in marketing strategy to make it to government.

When Bernard Grech took over, the media was continuously giving us information about the reforms that were planned and were being implemented by Bernard Grech. Despite his reforms, the 2022 electoral result is what it is. But now, Mark Anthony Sammut is no longer  declaring that reforms are not enough to change the situation, as he stated in 2019.

Now, in 2022, he is urging party supporters not to throw away all that has been achieved together with the vision outlined in the electoral programme, which can be built on. This is not the moment for the party to be fragmented.

In 2019, Mark Anthony Sammut had no problem advising in favour of the fragmentation of the Nationalist Party. He even stated that it would be “political suicide” to blame the people who did not vote PN or did not vote at all for the PN’s failure in the EU elections. He postulated that this would lead to a worse situation in the next election. At least, he was right that in the general elections, the PN fared even worse but this time, it was his anointed leader who was leading the PN.

Moreover, now, he blames the people for the Nationalist defeat. Sammut said that apart from dishing out cheques during the electoral campaign, he knew people who were informed on election day by union representatives that a good pay packet had been negotiated and others who were given a contract for social housing for a house that is still to be built.

In 2019, Sammut also postulated that the only way out of this political impasse was to move aside and allow others who are willing to come forward to  help, bringing about more unity in the party. In 2022, Mark Anthony Sammut says that he is staying on and wants Bernard Grech to stay on. Hence, he does not want those individuals, including himself, who are associated with an electoral defeat, to resign.

In 2019, though Sammut was not part of the campaign team, he said that he was resigning and in fact, he resigned from his post as President of the Executive Council. In 2022, he was at the centre of the PN’s political campaign. The party got the worst result ever and he wants to stay on as president of the National Party General Council!

It is more than clear that Mark Anthony Sammut is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of Maltese politics.