The votes were still being counted. Bernard Grech had an insurmountable lead. The Nationalist Party leadership election result had not even been announced. The Labour Party couldn’t hold back. “The establishment has won” was the screeching headline to a desperate Labour statement.
The Labour propaganda machine had been working overtime to discredit Bernard Grech since before his name was put forward for leader. All the stops had been pulled to ensure that the incumbent remained in his post.
The abysmal ratings for the ex-PN leader was a blessing for a party in government on the defensive on all fronts and a prime minister whose popularity had been decimated following his botched response to the pandemic.
The press statement betrayed the sheer frustration and blind panic that had seized the Labour Party. Its strategy to promote the incumbent had failed – and failed abysmally.
The PN was on the march once more – and that meant that Labour’s walkover was over.
Instead of having the basic courtesy and common decency of congratulating Grech on his election, Labour unleashed a tirade of aggressive hostility and manifest falsehoods. “The same establishment of past PN dynasties, which the people had voted out, has won again,” Labour declared.
This was followed by a list of bizarre and wild claims: “With Bernard Grech, the PN will go back to the days of higher energy bills, an open door migration policy and an inferiority complex when dealing with other countries.” The politics of fear.
Grech obtained the support of almost 70 per cent of party members – thousands of them. If Labour’s mantra that Grech was the establishment candidate held some water before the overwhelming victory, the response of the party members put an end to it.
But Labour won’t let go. They wager that repeating it long enough will engrave it in the national psyche.
But if Grech is the establishment candidate, what about Robert Abela?
Does the fact that Joseph and Michelle Muscat worked tirelessly to help him grasp victory from the jaws of defeat make him an establishment prime minister?
Does the fact that the de facto prime minister Keith Schembri tried to harm Chris Fearne’s prospects make Abela the establishment candidate?
Does the fact that he declared that he was the candidate of continuity not imply that he is the real establishment figure?
If Bernard Grech is the establishment candidate after winning almost 70 per cent of the members’ vote, what can be said about Robert Abela, who won with only 58?
And dynasties? Was Grech’s father deputy leader of the party or president of the republic?
Labour’s relentless aggression is a veneer for gloom- Kevin Cassar
The statement continued: “If Grech wants to be taken seriously, he needs to come clean about his tax issues and under declaring of income”.
Grech had admitted that he had paid his tax and VAT dues shortly before contesting the leadership contest and confessed that he could have done things better. Labour have pounced on this. But the prime minister and several other Labour ministers have reassured us repeatedly that the institutions are working. Surely if Grech had committed a crime the institutions would have nabbed him by now. So either Grech has committed no crime or the institutions haven’t been working at all.
Labour wasn’t done: “Today’s election was won by the faction of Simon Busuttil, Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina”.
After spending the duration of the PN leadership campaign inciting, goading and sowing division, intent on pitting PN supporters against each other, Labour concluded: “Politics that divide rather than unite”.
If there was any doubt who was behind the statement, the prime minister himself chimed in. Using the typical Super One tactic of sardonic sarcasm, Abela proclaimed that he is always proud to be Maltese.
He presented the opposition leader with a proposal to agree a common policy on migration with the puerile slogan: “We are full-up”.
Worse still, he urged Grech not to hinder his work on migration as a member of a civil society group.
In Amnesty International’s recent report ‘Malta: Waves of Impunity’, Abela and his government have been roundly condemned for “grave human rights violations”, “multiple failures to respect and protect the rights of refugees and migrants”, “unlawful detention of migrants for weeks on board private vessels” and other “unlawful practices” .
It argues that the Maltese authorities must be held accountable for these violations.
On October 2, the United Nations slammed Abela’s government for the “shocking” conditions in which migrants are kept with limited access to daylight, clean water or sanitation.
The UN human rights office has echoed Amnesty’s demand that serious allegations of failure to assist people in distress at sea and co-ordinated pushbacks should be duly investigated.
But Abela wants Grech to join him in breaking international law and violating basic human rights. His chant “we are full-up” echoes the lebensraum of Mein Kampf. His slogan of ‘Malta and the Maltese first’ echoes Deutschland über alles.
No decent German felt proud of his country when the atrocities inflicted by the ideology of Mein Kampf were exposed. No Maltese can be proud of the lethal mix of corruption, criminality and complicit silence that a Labour government has inflicted on the country.
Abela picks up the baton of caustic sarcasm from his predecessor: “Grech will only enter Castille when he wins an election”.
Did Abela win any election? For that matter, did Melvin Theuma or Yorgen Fenech win one?
Labour’s relentless aggression is a veneer for gloom. The new and desperately needed renaissance is striking foreboding into the crumbling edifice of Labour’s invincibility.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery and former PN candidate.