Prime Minister Robert Abela had tied his party’s performance in the European Parliament and local council elections to the electorate’s faith in him. He said he considered every vote for Labour candidates as a vote of confidence in him.
Abela adopted an aggressive populist campaign designed to provoke a negative sentiment among the people against what he referred to as the “establishment” that he refused to identify in concrete terms.
At the same time, he went for the jugular of anyone whom he perceived as a hindrance to a Labour landslide election victory and the retaining of four MEP seats from a total of six.
In the process, Abela undermined the independence of the judiciary by his repeated attempts at intimidating its members.
Labour Party CEO Randolph Debattista publicly expressed disagreement with Abela’s partisan attacks against the judiciary.
Similarly, Abela adopted intimidating attitudes towards the independent media. He focused his attacks on individual journalists and instigated hate against them by implying that they are enemies of the state and of the people.
This shows that he has learnt nothing from the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia for which the state was held responsible.
Abela went on to accuse the Nationalist Party of being the adversary of the people and he engaged in rhetoric to portray the Nationalist MEP candidates as being disloyal to their country.
Abela went to the extent of accusing European People’s Party general secretary and former PN leader Simon Busuttil of following a path that leads to the killing of innocent children and women for favouring greater EU defence spending, just as he accused the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola of being a warmonger, when he himself voted with other EU leaders in favour of bolstering EU defence expenditure.
Abela continued to show his weakness as party leader by going to the extent of appealing to the electorate to show their support for his disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat by voting for Labour candidates.
Conscious of the massive support that Muscat enjoys within the PL, Abela simply sat back as Muscat endorsed his party’s EP candidates and addressed their campaign rallies.
Abela did not have the guts to instruct his party’s supporters to keep away from a rally held in front of the law courts in support of Muscat on the day of his arraignment, even though he knew that this would drive moderate Labourites away.
So, to dissuade Labourites from attending, he came up with the cowardly alibi that the PN had set up a planned trap for those attending – without substantiating his claim.
In a desperate attempt by Labour to keep control over the highly contested Siġġiewi local council, the housing ministry attempted to fraudulently obtain an additional 99 votes from persons living outside the village, through a false declaration that they were induced to make that they had switched their home address to that of an apartment block in Siġġiewi that was not yet habitable.
Abela showed no regret for such manipulation of voters that the court considered to amount to criminal wrongdoing.
Like a spoilt brat, Robert Abela pointed an accusing finger at everyone except himself for his party’s mediocre performance in the elections- Denis Tanti
After the court ordered a reversal of the residence status of the voters, Abela continued with his tirade against the judiciary by barefacedly alleging that these voters and their families had been persecuted.
The PL made extensive use of its power of incumbency and embarked on an extravagant campaign by providing entertainment at mass meetings and setting up large marquees for village meetings. The PL also spread its billboards all over the country, dwarfing the number of PN billboards.
This did not, however, spare Abela from an embarrassing electoral result, which brought to light the significant dwindling of the people’s faith in him, reaching an all-time low.
It became conspicuous that genuine Labour voters kept away from the polls after former Labour councillor and activist Desmond Zammit Marmarà openly advised against voting for corrupt Labour. Labour lost big. Abela took the party to its worst electoral result in 58 years.
The PL haemorrhaged no less than 23,462 votes from the last EP election, obtaining 45.26 per cent of all valid votes, while it lost one of its four EP seats.
The PN, on the other hand, increased its votes by 10,740, securing the same number of three EP seats as the PL, and it cut down more than four-fifths of the huge 42,656-vote majority previously obtained by the PL to a mere 8,454.
In the local council elections, the PL similarly suffered a substantial loss of 15,747 votes while the PN increased its votes by 11,114. As a result, the gap between the parties has narrowed by over 57 per cent from the previous elections.
In the aftermath of the elections, Abela inflicted even more harm on himself and his party, when, like a little spoilt brat, he pointed an accusing finger at everyone except himself for his party’s mediocre show.
Within 24 hours, Labour deputy leader Daniel Micallef resigned while Abela refused to confirm whether Debattista’s CEO position was secure.
Abela also angered many honest workers in the lower grades of the public service when he unashamedly extended the blame for Labour’s underperformance on them, alleging that they had not worked hard enough and failed to serve the people.
Labour’s precarious situation becomes even more evident if one were to take into account that the 45.26 per cent of valid votes cast that it obtained in the EP election translate to just 31.82 per cent of the votes of all eligible voters, including 109,926 non-committed ones, making up 29.69 per cent of all potential voters who either abstained from voting or cast an invalid vote.
This section of voters is certainly a force to be reckoned with.
With its numerical strength, it can tip the scales and usher in a wind of change that this country so badly needs.
Denis Tanti is a former assistant director at the health ministry.