It is said that the best way to judge a politician’s performance is to look at the figures, and look out of the window.

Joseph Muscat spent five years as Opposition leader and six as prime minister.

He leaves in disgrace, and yet he remains hugely popular among his supporters. His party would likely still win with a big majority were an election to be held tomorrow.

Contrasts and contradictions can be seen throughout his political performance. It really depends on whether one is looking at the figures or out of the window.

Economy – the best in Europe

Muscat had promised to make Malta the ‘Best in Europe’. The figures show that economically, he was spot on. Malta under Muscat has had the best performing economy in Europe. Growth has been three times higher than the EU average, unemployment is at a record low, the number of people – and women – in employment has never been higher. And Muscat converted the government deficit into a surplus and significantly reduced government debt as a percentage of GDP.

Of course, context counts: the European economy in general has been gaining traction since 2013 and Lawrence Gonzi’s Nationalist government bequeathed Labour a €1.12 billion package of EU financial assistance spread over seven years.

Now look out of the window. Are people better off now than in 2013? As promised, Labour reduced income tax but salaries have not been growing as fast as the economy. In many cases, salaries have not been keeping up with inflation, either. Take property for example. It is far more difficult now for young couples to buy a property than it was in 2013. The same goes for day-to-day expenses.

Quality of life – a mixed bag

And then there is quality of life. Hospital waiting lists were reduced under Muscat – although not enough. The problem of unavailable medicines from government dispensaries has been solved. However, hospital overcrowding persists.

The Labour government’s decision to farm out the management of most state hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare (and subsequently Steward) will long remain one of the government’s biggest controversies and potentially one of its biggest failures. Incidentally, in one of the Labour Budget speeches, a commitment was made to privatise the operation of some of the health centres. That idea appears to have been shelved.

But back to quality of life. More people are eating out. People now find it easier to travel abroad than ever before.

Getting to work is a different matter, however. Significant investment is being made in the roads, particularly in this second Muscat term, but the roads became clogged up and travelling times in some areas tended to become longer – exactly the opposite of what was promised in 2013. Muscat’s Labour governments could well be blamed in the future for having wasted precious time in not coming up with viable alternative transport systems.

The environment was never far from the headlines during Muscat’s tenure, mostly for the wrong reasons as buildings, petrol stations and tower cranes sprouted everywhere and more of the countryside was lost.

Muscat’s environment card was that he closed the polluting Marsa power station and converted the Delimara power house to use gas instead of heavy fuel oil, but much of the benefit was lost because of emissions from cars.

Passporting revenue

Not mentioned in Labour’s 2013 electoral programme but introduced soon after that year’s general election was the sale of Maltese passports. The scheme, officially known as Citizenship by Investment, was introduced controversially and eventually modified after EU pressure while Muscat was accused of selling Malta’s soul.

But the scheme has since yielded millions of euros. Budget projections for this year alone show an expected revenue of €50m from €14m in 2019.

Social policy – major changes

One of Muscat’s earliest decisions, and one of his best for many families, was the introduction of free childcare. It is a system which still needs to be polished but it undoubtedly helped many mothers to retain their jobs after having children. Similar systems are now being introduced in other European countries.

Getting more women to work – along with thousands of expatriates – enabled Muscat to substantially raise tax revenue which he then used to beef up pensions – although not as much as some people had hoped. He left the retirement age unchanged but was also able to introduce incentives to encourage workers not to retire early.

Indeed, Muscat’s social policies – including his impact on civil rights – will be felt well into the future. Various schemes such as the ‘in-work benefit’ mean that the number of people reliant on social benefits is now at an all-time low. Muscat was slow off the mark in the area of social housing and frankly, has little to show for it.

But he was something of a trail blazer in civil rights, improving gay rights and legalising same sex marriage – although that was never specifically mentioned in Labour’s electoral programme.

While in Opposition, Muscat had given notice of his intentions by backing a Nationalist government MP who, over his party leader’s head, moved legislation for the introduction of divorce.

Foreign workers – an unplanned influx

The Muscat years will be remembered for the huge influx of foreign workers – attracted to Malta to feed the resurgent economy. Their tax money helped turn government accounts from red to black but the surge was unplanned and put huge pressure on the public health system, education and housing, as well as increasing the number of cars on the roads.

The foreign workers covered a vast spectrum of the economy – from the well-paid jobs in the gaming industry to the low-paid and often exploited construction workers and waiters. Inevitable social tensions grew in areas such as St Paul’s Bay and parts of Ħamrun. But perhaps a more real problem was the downward pressure on wages for the Maltese created by the engagement of low-paid foreigners.

The extra demand for accommodation, which fuelled economic development, also had consequences on the urban environment. Muscat could say he changed the face of Malta. Environmentalists would say he scarred it, as additional floors were rapidly added to houses and hotels, new construction sprouted up in the increasingly flexible ODZ areas, and permits for ‘high-rises’ mushroomed, sometimes controversially as in the case of Mrieħel and Sliema.

Business: friendly... too friendly

One of the characteristics of Muscat’s stewardship of the Labour Party was the way he shifted the party to the centre and forged links with private businesses previously undreamt of. Indeed, complaints that the party had actually become too cosy with businesses ‘on the fourth floor’ of its headquarters surfaced even before Labour was elected in 2013. Time proved those complaints right and, ultimately, brought about Muscat’s own downfall as his friendship with tycoon Yorgen Fenech – accused of being an accomplice in Caruana Galizia’s murder – was revealed.

The Muscat years were blighted with repeated complaints about the way government contracts were awarded and public-private partnerships were forged, undermining his own promise of good governance.

That, in turn, led to another failure of Muscat’s leadership – the rule of law and separation of powers – with the police and regulatory authorities seen as being too close to the government and unwilling to investigate well-based suspicions of wrongdoing and downright corruption.

The misrule of law

Slippage in the rule of law and Muscat’s willingness to close an eye came to the fore when the Panama Papers leak showed how his own chief of staff and his energy minister had set up secret companies in Panama and trusts in New Zealand. That Muscat kept his lieutenants on board had consequences which snowballed over the following months, especially when Yorgen Fenech was shown to have himself owned a secret company – 17 Black – that was to allegedly funnel funds to the Panama companies.

The existence of the Panama companies was first revealed by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Her car bomb murder on October 16, 2017, was the blackest day of Muscat’s term and defined his premiership. Muscat’s promise to leave ‘no stone unturned’ in the investigation was undone when it was revealed that Muscat himself was friendly with the suspected mastermind, Fenech, and his own chief of staff had been in regular contact with him.

The biggest civil society protests Malta has ever seen, demanding justice and Muscat’s immediate resignation, tell their own tale of his misjudgements.

EU – from darling to pariah

Muscat had an interesting relationship with the EU. He started his political life as a journalist campaigning against Malta joining the bloc.

Once Malta joined and the Labour Party made a policy U-turn, Muscat contested and comfortably won election to the European Parliament, where he earned a good reputation for himself.

As prime minister he started his tenure by telling the EU to ‘smell the coffee’ about the migration issue as he threatened pushbacks. But his views moderated and along the years his opinions on various topics, including migration, Libya and austerity, gained traction.

He ended up hosting two EU summits in Malta and was touted as a possible successor for EU Council President Donald Tusk at the end of 2019.

But Muscat’s mishandling of corruption allegations and the murder of Caruana Galizia meant that his relationship with the EU turned full circle. It was the EU which now did not want anything to do with Muscat – the European Parliament, including its socialist group, voted overwhelmingly for him to go.

Power – back to square one

Yorgen Fenech was a director of Electrogas, the company controversially granted a government contract to build the new gas-fired power station. Building the new power station – and reducing power tariffs – was a central plank of Labour’s election promises in 2013.

‘Security of supply’ was a term frequently used at the time.

Fast forward to 2019, and as Muscat prepares to leave, ‘security of supply’ is back on the agenda, people are suffering power cuts and although, as promised, the Marsa power station was shut down, part of it had to be fired up once again to kick-start the Delimara emergency turbines.