Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494946
8 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 MARCH 2023 Yellow card for Abela... but will Corruption becomes an issue when combined with other factors like declining pur- chasing power Corruption has dominated the news headlines since 2016, when the Panama Papers ex- posed Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri as owners of secret companies set up to channel funds from other secret compa- nies set up by magnate Yorgen Fenech, the alleged master- mind of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Gali- zia. But despite an initial shock, also reflected in polls at the time, La- bour went on to win super-majorities in 2017 and 2022 on the same scale as 2013. So what has made the Vitals-Stew- ard hospital deal differ- ent in effect? One major differ- ence is that here the Opposi- tion has been vindicated by a scathing court sentence. Un- like the Electrogas concession on Delimara, which despite the alleged corruption has contrib- uted to a reduction in utility bills, the hospitals privatisation came with no benefits and only an haemorrhage public funds with no deliverables, like the promised new Gozo hospital. But the timing of the court sentence has coincided with a period of increased hard- ship from spiralling inflation. It could be a far worse situa- tion had the government not absorbed the hike in energy prices, but surveys now show inflation is the Maltese's ma- jor concern, a throwback to the pre-2013 years. And this changes optics for voters and their perception of corruption – significantly, the lat- est survey shows the PN making gains among the sec- ondary-educated, a cohort which includes older, working-class voters. Here the PN has gained 10 points while Labour lost a staggering 20. Yet what the PN cannot for- get is that when choosing any government, voters will ask which prime minister they can trust in a moment of crisis, as was COVID, and now with in- flation triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Muscat's legacy is a liability but confronting him remains tricky for Abela Labour leader Robert Abela has walked on a tightrope ever since his election, avoiding di- rect confrontation with a pre- decessor whose loyalists have also been sidelined by the new PM. This was partly understand- able before the 2022 general election, when Abela found himself inheriting Joseph Mus- cat's mandate on a pledge of "continuity". But with a su- per-majority of his own, Ab- ela is now his own man, and while blaming Muscat for past decisions could provide Abela a way out, it inevitably raises questions on how he will hold his predecessor to account. Abela should be aloof from police investigations that have any bearing on his predecessor, but loyalists are bound to in- terpret any proceedings against Muscat as an act of betrayal on Abela's part. Still, the shockwaves from the latest MaltaToday poll are bound to weaken Muscat's stature in the party. Cher- ished as the politician who restored Labour's electoral fortunes and the architect of unprec- edented majorities, Muscat's toxic legacy is now dragging the party down in the polls: Labour's Phoenix has morphed into Abela's albatross, with the problem possibly coming to a head if a magisterial inquiry concludes that charges should be pressed against former min- isters Konrad Mizzi, Chris Car- dona and Edward Scicluna over the hospitals privatisation deal. In this sense Abela's failure to distance himself from the Muscat cabal in his first years in office may well come back to haunt him. For it was Abela's silence on Muscat's problemat- ic legacy that left thousands of Labourites in the dark, believ- ing the former leader is a vic- tim of a conspiracy. Unity worked wonders for the PN but failure to confront identity problems may come at a cost in the near future After being blamed for the party's bad polling in his time as PN leader, by winning the court case Adrian Delia has not just rehabilitated his name within the party but also hand- ed Bernard Grech his best ev- er polling result, rescuing the PN from an abyss of successive negative polls. Grech was quick to realise this and admirably shared his platform with his predecessor, who was so brutally spat out by the party establishment when presenting Grech as his chal- lenger. But their united front seems to have brought the PN's own civil war to an end. The question is, will it last? Or is it delaying the much-needed de- bate on the party's iden- tity and positioning? Labour can still exploit the PN's divisions on reforms that split con- servatives and the few remaining liberal voic- es in the PN. Labour has been rocked by corruption scandals ever since Panamagate in 2016. But it did not stop the party's super-majorities in 2017 and 2022. Why has the Steward hospitals scandal come at such a big polling cost to Labour? And wil the PN sustain its gains, or will conservative retrenchment keep Labour voters away, asks James Debono Robert Abela