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MALTATODAY 1 November 2020

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12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 BUDGET 2021 1. Abela did better than expected while Grech who had all eyes on him in an- ticipation, played safe and failed to im- press This year's budget speech was clearly one of Abela's best televised performanc- es so far. Compared to poor, long-wind- ed performances during televised press conferences during lockdown, Abela performance surpassed expectations. In contrast more was expected of Grech, who was hailed as a seasoned communi- cator before his election as PN leader. In the end he gave an average performance. Unlike Grech, who largely limited him- self to reading a script – thus appearing stiff and sometimes confused – Abela was more bubbly, reactive, and confi- dent. Still despite having the upper hand, Abela did come across as unnecessarily confrontational, especially when consid- ering that Grech was not. In fact, Labour has found itself spinning Grech's largely positive and forward-looking speech as "negative", banking on the fact that many had either not watched it or had turned off, bored by Grech's monotonous start. Significantly while Grech probably lost a chunk of his audience in the first part of his speech before he set the ball rolling, even delivering some blows as he went along, Abela started his speech on a strong, albeit cocky and self-congratula- tory note, entertaining his audience with barbs against the Opposition and then moving on to more specific topics. Yet overall, while Abela emphasised 'national unity' he was also divisive and bullish, pressing on the Opposition to admit that Malta is "full up" and con- tinuously mocking Grech (justifiably) for his past fiscal misdemeanours and also for less serious gaffes, which pale in significance with far greater scandals plaguing Labour. This may go down well with tribal au- diences but may irk more moderate and reflective voters who may find Abela over the top. 2. Abela had a good budget to sell. Grech had to criticise it but he could have changed the focus to his own pro- posal. Abela had one notable advantage. He was defending a budget which delivered goodies including an increase in pen- sions to various sectors in very difficult times. And while his handling of COVID-19 pandemic during the summer months, left a lot to desire, his handling of the economy during the pandemic has proved successful especially in terms of employment figures. His comparison with the austerity pre- vailing before 2013 – evoked 17 times during the budget speech – was in this sense highly effective. Abela's message was consistent; if we can do better than PN governments during a pandemic, just imagine what we can do when we are out of this. What Abela does not say is that COVID-19 itself has enabled govern- ments to spend more and incur deficits. What distinguishes Malta is that its pub- lic debt figures have enabled it to spend its way out of the crisis without much long-term damage. On the other hand, Grech struggled between welcoming some of the meas- ures while questioning the direction of the country. While some of his criticism on COVID-19 and Labour's economic model is pertinent, he failed to capture the imagination by emphasising a few of his own proposals with clarity and depth. And while one can question how sustain- able a model based on low taxation and high spending is in the long term, Grech could not do this without sounding like a prophet of doom. Instead he ended up proposing a few measures of his own, some of which looked half-baked like the proposed liv- ing wage. Other measures sounded like ways to avoid taking a stance as was the case with his convoluted proposal of a masterplan for Gozo before any final decision on the tunnel. 3. Abela was optimistic pitting hope against fear while Grech did not do enough to balance justified concern on the COVID death toll with an uplifting message While Abela's speech conveyed opti- mism and hope in auguring a quick re- turn to 'normality', Grech was more sol- emn in commemorating those who lost their life in the pandemic. Yet while Abela sounded insensitive and too eager to set the engine running again, Grech failed to balance his criti- cism of Abela's lack of leadership in the second wave of the pandemic, with gen- erating optimism around his own party's proposals. Still despite his pretensions on present- ing the "best ever budget", Abela seems too keen on continuity with an economic model, which made his present spending spree possible, but on which the country is hooked in its dependence on endless construction and importation of foreign labour. Abela himself acknowledged that the country found itself losing some of its values while sprinting ahead. This raises the question; will the country repeat the same mistakes as soon as it starts run- ning again? 4. Abela has no scruples on pandering to migration fears triggered by boat arrivals while the PN focuses on for- eign workers which are perceived as a source of revenue Through his speech Abela made a clear distinction between boat people for which the country is full up and foreign workers who come here through legal channels for which the country will re- main open. In this sense he appeals to a Bullish Abela outperforms Grech in Budget speech Riding on the crest of a generous budget delivered in the midst of a pandemic whose death toll is increasing, Robert Abela performed better than expected in his reply to Bernard Grech's disappointing first major speech in parliament. JAMES DEBONO gives 5 reasons why Abela found it so easy to outperform Grech JAMES DEBONO Curiously Abela found himself contrasting the PN to more hawkish parties in the European People's Party some of which are allied to far-right parties. But his own discourse on the issue may well make most European socialists cringe.

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