When populism replaces policy, all you’re left with is imitation politics.
Alex Borg is at it again — selling recycled ideas as if they’re groundbreaking reforms.
His latest proposal? A €5,000 Child Trust Fund for every newborn if the Nationalist Party wins the next general election.
At first glance, it sounds nice — until you realize it’s not new, not original, and certainly not Maltese. It’s a copy-paste gimmick from policies introduced years ago in other countries, including the United States and Russia.
Copying Putin and Trump Is Not a Policy Vision
Let’s call things by their name.
In Russia, the “maternal capital” programme has existed for years — offering up to 933,000 rubles (around $15,500) for families having a second child, and even more for a third. The policy was expanded in 2023 as part of a long-term demographic strategy.
In the United States, during the Trump administration, the White House considered a similar proposal — a $5,000 baby bonus — as a temporary economic stimulus to tackle declining birth rates.
Proposed or introduced in massive economies, with population decline and multi-billion social budgets.
Malta, on the other hand, is a small island with a social system that already provides free education, healthcare, childcare subsidies, maternity benefits, and child allowance.
So when Alex Borg copies Russia’s “maternal capital” and Trump’s “baby bonus” and presents it as his own “vision,” it’s not policy — it’s plagiarism.
Partit Nazzjonalista
The Hypocrisy of the “New PN”
The Nationalist Party loves to attack the Labour Government for allegedly “borrowing ideas” or “spending irresponsibly.”
But now, their own “rising star,” Alex Borg, proposes one of the most expensive populist measures ever imagined — a scheme that would cost tens of millions annually without a single explanation of how it will be funded.
How will this be financed? Through higher taxes? Borrowing? Or maybe the same magic money that financed PN’s failed “€400 million hospital scandal” myth?
It’s easy to make promises when you’re in Opposition and will never have to implement them. But the Maltese people are not fools — they’ve seen this movie before.
A Political Stunt, Not a Family Policy
Real family policy isn’t about handing out cheques — it’s about building affordable housing, strong healthcare, work-life balance, and fair wages.
Labour governments have done exactly that — from free childcare and in-work benefits to extended parental leave and record childcare subsidies.
Alex Borg’s €5,000 stunt is just that — a stunt. It’s a desperate attempt to look relevant, to sound innovative, to act “Presidential”.
Alex Borg
From Empty Words to Empty Promises
Alex Borg wants to look like the “modern face” of the Nationalist Party, but behind the polished smile and rehearsed speeches lies the same PN mentality: promise now, panic later.
If he truly cared about families, he’d start by acknowledging the foundations already built — not by copying ideas from Moscow and Washington and pretending they’re his own.
Malta doesn’t imitation politicians.
It needs leadership — and Alex Borg just proved he’s not ready to provide it.
1 Comment
The majority of Maltese voters have learned at their own expense what it means to trust the pneeeeeers with the country tiller, and as long as the Labour administration keeps sustaining the majority of voters pockets, the pneeeeeers have no chance on GOD’S green earth of having the country’s tiller in their hands, the more promises that they will push out, the more the majority of voters will not trust them.