Josanne Cassar | Opinion column

When foreigners are used as scapegoats, it means the government is in trouble

November 8, 2026 | No comments

There is an uncomfortable similarity between what the Maltese government is doing and the way Trump successfully managed to direct the public’s anger towards immigrants (instead of himself) for so long. During these past two years he managed to deflect from the fact that his decisions were disastrous and he tapped into an inherent prejudice and bigotry among a large segment of Americans instead.

The politics of spite and envy

November 1, 2026 | No comments

This column first appeared in Malta Today You’ve got to hand it to the dynamic duo of Robert Abela/Clyde Caruana. […]

What the people want and the direction the PM is taking us, could not be more different

October 25, 2026 | No comments

It was reported this week that the Labour Party is preparing a wide-ranging listening exercise over the next two years, aimed at gathering public views to inform future policy discussions. It plans to reach around 350,000 voters with various political views, using volunteers, community hubs and technology, although there has been no information on how much it will cost to collate and analyse the data.

It’s not just about Stivala’s restaurant, but it was the last straw

October 18, 2026 | No comments

When protests erupted in Madrid after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from the home she had been renting for decades, it was not just about her particular case alone.

This country is tired of fighting for its rights

October 11, 2026 | No comments

Occasionally, a news story which has dominated the headlines can give me enough material to write about a new topic, but there are times, like today, when all I feel is fatigue and ennui. The same problems hover over us, weekly, monthly, yearly and yet the government seems to have been consumed by inertia or indifference or both; unable or unwilling to tackle what really matters to the average person.

The money has to come from somewhere

October 4, 2026 | No comments

This week, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana went on record as saying he does not want to be the person who “kills this country’s economy” and that is why energy subsidies will not be removed under his watch. Fair enough – I don’t think any rational person wishes Malta to collapse either because we will all suffer as a result.

A disrupted conference, pointless hindsight and a slice of pizza

September 27, 2026 | No comments

It is clear that we need more than just street protests to shake this government from its complacency and its smug assumption that people will simply forget about the blatant corruption and move on. A protest will be “tolerated”, and afterwards those who made the effort to show up will go home and, no matter how angry they still are, they inevitably have to resume their lives.

This is not about which side wins, it’s about what Malta has lost

September 20, 2026 | No comments

When people put a laughing emoji or a derogatory comment every time the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder is mentioned, I take a look at their profile.

Was it a ‘runaway jury’ or did the prosecution simply fail to prove its case?

September 13, 2026 | No comments

Hot on the heels of the “not guilty” verdict in the Yorgen Fenech trial which left (almost) everyone reeling and more conspiracy theories than you can shake your fist at, fresh news emerged which continue to stun an already shell-shocked nation.

A trial by jury; a trial by public opinion

September 6, 2026 | No comments

On Wednesday evening, I forgot my phone at home, which rarely happens. So when I first heard the news from the friends I was with, I thought surely that can’t be right. They showed me their phone and there it was, spelled out in black and white.