It is now amply clear that although, on paper, Robert Abela is leader of the Labour Party, his predecessor still has a hold on his party.
Otherwise, Joseph Muscat would never have been allowed to appear anywhere near the party, especially at the height of an election campaign.
How dare you try to point fingers at us, Abela told journalists last week as they sought to establish whether Muscat would be invited to address Labour activities. Can you not see what is happening within the Nationalist Party, which is experiencing an exodus of established candidates, he asked.
On one occasion, he was questioned about Muscat at least three times and, every time, he failed to give a straight answer: “I believe in the politics of unity, not division,” he replied.
Abela will do anything to project an image of a united party, even if that means emasculating himself politically.
Muscat’s ‘return’ should not surprise anybody, though. Although he was forced to resign as prime minister in early 2020, he never really threw in the towel.
In an interview with Times of Malta last summer, he kept the door open for a return to politics.
“If they keep annoying me, I do not exclude it,” he said when asked about such an eventuality.
He upped the ante after the police searched his house last month: “I will make more noise, both on the internet but also face to face, with people,” Muscat warned.
Abela, perhaps thinking he could quell the political giant without asserting his authority, shot himself in the foot from the outset when he pledged “continuity” from Muscat’s administration. That could have been taken as a cue for the former leader to remain in the wings.
And that is what he did, waiting for the right time to get back on stage and shield behind the popular support he enjoys among Labour voters.
The official election campaign was still in its third day when it emerged that Muscat had been endorsing Labour candidates and appearing at fringe political events.
While he has not yet attended any of the main events, participating as a “special guest” at a political activity was already on the cards.
Muscat should know better. His presence ultimately damages any Labour efforts at rehabilitating the party following his years at the helm and further tarnishes Malta’s international reputation. But, as he has done since becoming prime minister in 2013 and even after stepping down, he intends saving his own skin above any other consideration, including the political well-being of the person whom, by all accounts, he chose as his successor.
Individual candidates are likely to gain from Muscat’s endorsement. After all, our latest opinion poll shows the enormous popularity he still enjoys among Labour voters: a third of them said they preferred him as party leader.
For Abela, this must be uncomfortable. By contrast, this is one metric where opposition leader Bernard Grech fares better: nearly 72 per cent of those who said they would vote for the PN back him as party leader, though it is an almost foregone conclusion that Labour will win by another landslide.
Abela insists that, unlike Grech, he does not dump those who share his views. Tolerance may be a virtue.
But tolerating Muscat’s presence also signals tolerance of some of what he stands for: the fostering of a culture of corruption and impunity that facilitated the murder of a journalist and the theft of taxpayer millions.
This shows weakness, not statesmanship.