Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1504697
10 ANALYSIS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JULY 2023 MALTESE prime minister Rob- ert Abela has been hit by a tri- fecta of political debacles that appear to replicate the storm that presaged demise of the Gonzi II administration back in 2009. Now, political U-turns, bad optics, and infrastructural challenges are souring Labour's electoral soup. Abela is contending with un- precedented blackouts across the Maltese islands that have raised the public's ire, hot on the heels of national outrage over his obstinate refusal to have a public inquiry into the Kordin construction tragedy that claimed the life of young Jean Paul Sofia. 2023 has been a clamorous year for Labour: it is suffering a major fall-out on the Muscat legacy due to the Vitals-Stew- ard privatisation fiasco and major allegations of fraud and corruption. But with the Sofia inquiry vote, a further emo- tional cord with the adminis- tration has been severed – the polls show as much, with La- bour voters refusing to commit their vote in the face of such egregious decisions. The timing of the Sofia pro- tests, with nationwide black- outs exposing weaknesses in Malta's electricity distribution system, have left widespread bitterness across the nation. The thousandth cut, the fi- nal straw, the reminder of all things wrong... and Abela's last three years in power are now revealing a particular pattern. The Sofia inquiry Abela had been categorical about refusing the PN's call for a public inquiry, parallel to the Kordin magisterial inquiry, into construction deaths, a campaign spearheaded by the grieving mother of Jean Paul Sofia. That position was crowned by his parliamentary group voting against the PN motion for an inquiry. But the image of the Sofia family rail- ing at the Labour MPs from the Strangers Gallery became an enduring image of justified rage, prompting national op- probrium for Labour. Suffering the consternation of a wide part of the electorate, Abela appeared careless as he was snapped ploughing out of his troubled Maltese waters for his Ragusan weekender – with baseball cap in reverse and dressed in holiday mode – on his swanky Azimut 50 yacht, an image of wealth that smacked of disdain for an enraged pub- lic. The tide turned almost im- mediately, with Abela meeting Sofia's mother to announce the public inquiry as a vigil for So- fia to be attended by thousands outside Castille beckoned. The PM then seemed to have torn the political playbook when on the Monday evening of announcing the public in- quiry, he exited Castille an hour after the Sofia vigil had come to an end, only to be booed by the stragglers leav- ing the protest. Had he tried to bait the partisan haters in the crowd? But no prime minister should ever allow himself to be seen humiliated in public... A week later: the blackout crisis – an unprecedented week-long saga of power cuts brought about by faulty un- derground cables, overheating and the new 'abnormal' from the planetary climate crisis. Next in line, a potential milk shortage due to power cuts at the Malta Dairy Products plant (and the summer heat naturally affecting cow milk production). Storms past: Gonzi II Like Abela, Nationalist prime minister Lawrence Gonzi too displayed a stubborn attitude in the face of complex econom- ic and infrastructural challeng- es in his second legislature. Unable to solve the island's energy problems and its debt-ridden energy plant, hy- pocrisy in the face of a grow- ing demand for civil liberties, scorned political alliances and an uneasy one-seat majority, Gonzi endured the demise of a once-powerful Nationalist administration under pressure from the international finan- cial crisis and its effects on Maltese industrial production. While Robert Abela did meet the challenge of the global COVID pandemic head-on with a generous package of wage and business relief, as well as tax-funded vouchers to inject a consumer sugar-rush in the economy, the blackouts of summer 2023 have marred Labour's much vaunted invest- ment in energy. The planetary climate crisis is turning every single summer abnormally hot, spiking Mal- ta's energy demand. But this reality cannot be decoupled by Labour's pro-growth model: construction full speed ahead and the use of foreign workers for low labour costs. This reality has exacerbated Malta's infrastructural pres- sures, traffic woes, and the so- cial issues from rising rental rates and communities com- plaining of bad neighbourli- ness. A blackout during the feel- good days of 2015 is not the same as a blackout under the scuffed and dented brand that Labour is today. This prime minister is for Is Malta's PM Robert Abela pushing the envelope with his electorate when testing the waters of public opinion before performing an about-turn? MATTHEW VELLA on the cuts that hurt the most... Robert Abela with Isabelle Bonnici, mother of Jean Paul Sofia