“Better to be feared than to be loved,” Niccolò Machiavelli advised leaders in his 16th century treatise, The Prince. Sadly for our own little prince, he was never truly loved. Now he’s not even feared.
Robert Abela never enjoyed the love Joseph Muscat still commands. There was never any real chemistry between the people and the privileged brat now sitting in Castille.
It was always going to be hard for the common man, struggling to make ends meet, to accept as their socialist leader the owner of a luxury yacht, with acres of land, a Xewkija farmhouse and the surrounding fields, a Marsascala property and hundreds of thousands in savings, stocks, bonds and shares.
It was always difficult for those burdened with crushing debt on their own meagre property to stomach a leader who didn’t even have a cent of debt. Everybody knew Abela was far too privileged to understand the daily challenges his people faced.
Things have now taken a sudden dramatic turn for the worse for Abela. The devastating election results exposed his fragility, his weakness. His own allies have turned against him. Jason Micallef, Randolph Debattista, Neville Gafà, Evarist Bartolo, Jimmy Magro and Daniel Micallef are all publicly denouncing Abela, blaming him for the crushing rebuke the electorate dealt him.
The unity Abela bragged about was nothing but a facade held together with the glue of fear. Now that glue has melted and Labour’s whole edifice is coming apart.
Labour’s inner core and diehard supporters have abandoned their restraint, ditched their silence and stopped toeing the party line. They’re letting rip. They see Abela on his knees. Instead of rushing to prop him up, they’re kicking him where it hurts.
Bartolo knows Abela well. He watched him in cabinet as Muscat’s consultant. Bartolo’s assessment of Abela is brutal: “Abela is too weak to take difficult decisions.” He condemned Abela for failing to take decisions after the 2022 election. He blamed him for making things worse or letting them get worse. He listed Abela’s failures: the destruction of the environment, the number of foreigners working in Malta, the massive construction, the abusive spread of restaurant tables and chairs on public pavements.
Daniel Micallef voted with his feet. Within 24 hours of the election result he was gone, resigning as deputy leader. Abela blamed the “ineffectual party administration”. It was everybody’s fault but his. Micallef responded by abandoning his position.
Meanwhile, Labour’s other deputy leader, Chris Fearne, was conspicuous by his silence, nowhere to be seen. Not a single word of support for his leader. Who can blame him?
When false stories originating in Pakistan about Fearne were circulated, Abela didn’t lift a finger to defend him. When Fearne was arraigned over the Vitals fraud he was left alone. Abela cannot expect the man he thwarted, with the help of Muscat’s meddling wife, Michelle, to leap to his defence now. Fearne must be relishing the humiliating bashing Abela is deservedly getting.
Robert Abela has lost all control. It’s a free-for-all- Kevin Cassar
Abela is on his own, abandoned by his two deputies, in his hour of desperate need. Instead of reaching out to his allies he is lashing out at them. As he sinks deeper into the muck, he’s pulling them with him. He launched a public tirade against his party’s CEO and MP, Debattista. He indicated he’ll soon sack him. Abela hung Debattista out to dry – “he has opinions that are not necessarily like those of the rest of the Labour parliamentary group,” Abela stated. Abela’s vicious message was clear – he’s not one of us, he’s against us.
Debattista politely demolished Abela. “My role is to keep the financial and administrative situation of the party sustainable. I always worked genuinely in that regard,” Labour’s CEO rebutted.
That’s a transparent threat to Abela: I know everything about the party’s finances and what you wanted to do with the money; don’t pick on me – you’ll regret it.
Abela has lost all control. It’s a free-for-all. Jason Micallef, in a treacherous social media post, pointed fingers, accusing Abela of sidelining him. He pointed out he’d been a key part of all Labour campaigns in the last 25 years, but not this time. He made it clear it wasn’t his decision – it was Abela’s. And Labour lost its fourth seat, its majority.
Micallef accused Abela of “systematically removing” those who loyally served the party in the past, including MPs, councillors and committee members. He criticised Labour’s incompetence in running major infrastructural projects. He accused ministers of behaving like “teenagers” on social media. He accused his party leadership of arrogance for organising a celebratory concert before the election was even held.
Others were far less kind. Magro, a former Labour general secretary, blasted Abela: “Not only were decisions not taken but the prime minister praised his government leadership and always claimed everything was running smoothly.” This is “leadership without political experience” and “lack of political direction”.
“The country is run by businessmen who get what they want,” he accused. “Millions were squandered,” he revealed.
Silvio Grixti was out to crush Abela. He mocked Abela for claiming he’d show humility after the election result ‒ “you’re either born humble or raised humble ‒ everything else is false”.
He targeted Abela again when he blamed civil servants for Labour’s defeat ‒ “Who approves and gives consent to cushy jobs,” Grixti asked, adding “tik tok tik tok”.
He openly challenged Abela: “Robert Abela, you said you don’t want any compromises with the truth. Be honest with the people and tell us what this man knows about you”, over a large picture of former Labour MP Ian Castaldi Paris.
You know the end is near, not when the voters desert you but when your own closest allies are lining up to knife you.
Abela’s days are truly numbered. But Abela lives on a different planet. “I will know myself when my time is up,” he announced, “when the time comes, I will take that decision myself.”
You have to pity the man.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.