Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1462900
4 maltatoday | MONDAY • 28 MARCH 2022 ELECTION 2022 Abela leads on his own steam, as the super-majority keeps Labour firmly in power JAMES DEBONO FOR the past three years since he replaced his disgraced pre- decessor, Abela had to walk on a tight-rope between continuity and change. Now it has been re- inforced by a popular mandate that allows him to no longer be conditioned by the dark shad- ow cast by his predecessor. He is now his own man and so he is expected to bring closure to the various spin-offs from the mother of all scandals – Pan- amagate, and to implement the recommendations of the Daph- ne Caruana Galizia inquiry. And he also has the power to send a strong message against hatred by finally giving public recognition to the murdered journalist. The question is: will he? The result itself suggests that the electorate has rewarded La- bour for its economic and so- cial policies, and Abela for his handling of the pandemic, but the new government cannot ig- nore the spike in non-voters, a segment which includes former Labour voters who could not bring themselves to vote PN but whose disgust over corruption and collusion with big business was a primary reason for staying home. While Abela's mandate is now strong and clear, regaining the trust of a segment which stayed away from the democratic pro- cess should also be a priority. If not, we may well end up in a sit- uation where the Opposition is no longer mediated by the elec- toral and parliamentary process, but oscillates between apathy and complacency and periodic bouts of anger. Abela should be credited for his solid leadership as the coun- try moved from one crisis to another: a political crisis which rocked Labour after the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, a global pan- demic which struck two months after he assumed his office, the greylisting by FATF, and now an ongoing war in the heart of Europe. Yet now that the election is over, Abela needs to be less a leader of a party and more of a statesman. He now has the ad- vantage that elections are five years away, while his margin of victory gives him the same op- portunity squandered by Mus- cat in 2013; that of implement- ing reforms without constantly pandering to powerful lobbies. Issues like low wages, the long- term sustainability of pensions, environmental degradation, cli- mate change, housing afforda- bility and corruption demand action in ways which may alien- ate lobbies which have backed Labour, but which in the pro- cess have eaten away its very soul. In this sense the raspberry blown by non-voters stands as a warning that not is well in the state of Denmark. In this context, Abela's su- per-majority may be a dou- ble-edged sword. With the next election also in the bag – as it is extremely difficult for any op- position to overturn a 35,000 gap in five years – Labour may well feel it can ride roughshod on any opposition or dissenting voice. And it was Abela's fear of losing this supermajority which contributed to major but pos- itive U-turns like his change of heart on the Marsaskala yacht marina. He has now to prove that this change of heart was genuine. For it is during the first two years of any legislature that govern- Robert Abela has won the election with nearly the same amount of votes as Joseph Muscat in 2017 despite a drop in the turnout. In this way his mandate is no longer the one he inherited from Muscat in 2019 and he has secured his own. The question is how will he use it?