The results of the third scientific survey on the ‘state of the nation’ were announced by statistician and lecturer at the University of Malta Dr Vincent Marmarà and sociologist Lou Bondì.

Dr Marmarà said the results of the survey found that the people feel that since the election, politics is less important to them. In this context, the people consider less the opinion of the political party before formulating their own opinion.

He noted another evident impact is that currently there are more people considering voting for different parties in the future.

It also emerged that a third of the people are not comfortable with culture mixing, another third of the people are undecided about culture mixing, or perhaps it is better to say that it depends on which culture they are ready to mix with, and only another third is comfortable with culture mixing.

Another finding was that currently it seems that people are following less news, in fact a reduction has been observed in almost all sources of different media, with television being the main source for people to follow Maltese news.

It emerged that the people believe in God but not with the same level of importance they give to religion.

The survey was conducted among a sample of 1,064 people aged 16 and over.

Strategic communications consultant Lou Bondì said that this year there is the advantage of being able to compare the results of the survey with those of the previous two years and see if there were any changes.

At the opening of the one-day national conference, President George Vella remarked that two years ago, this initiative “was a long-term vision and not a one-off occasion that leads nowhere.” He stated that now it is our turn to go one step further and see how we can move to the stage of implementing the recommendations that will be made today.

The President explained the importance of politicians, representatives of the authorities, civil society and NGOs starting to look at this Conference from the same perspective.

Also addressing the opening of the conference was the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, whose speech focused on the common good, the need for a new economic model with which every person can live a better life through the wealth created and the need to increase everyone’s activism.

“I deem the common good as a direction, rather than just a destination. A direction offering a strong framework for people to reach their aspirations. Common good does not mean looking at the majorities and forget the minorities or those who are on the edge,” stressed President Metsola.

She added that our country needs a new economic policy: “a transformation that brings stability and credibility.”

“We need a policy that offers hope and a sense of optimism for what we can still achieve,” stated the President of the European institution, while adding that “instead of political rhetoric, people want solutions with which they can have peace of mind.”

The Gozo Regional Development Authority has highlighted all the points in the survey related to Gozo and they can be read in this extract by clicking here.

In Gozo, it was found that traditional Maltese food and the local village festa were the most important aspects of the Maltese culture.

82.1% of those who took the survey always voted for the same political party, while 34.2% considered voting for a different party in the future.

94.9% of Gozitans believe that they have an average standard of living.

Gozitans also consider justice as being very important.

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