Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1524591
11 ANALYSIS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JULY 2024 sia, Gafà suggests "family values" are a big foundation of Vladimir Putin's nation-building. "Things are totally different in Russia," he says. Like what? No gay pride marches. "I don't think it's right that some half-naked man gets to parade down Republic Street in Valletta… and you might say this is what Pu- tin says, that Russians do not ac- cept something like this, not in the way it might happen in America." Gafà's MAGA content on X And then there's Trump of course. When Donald Trump was shot at in July, Gafà reposted Alex Jones and copy-pasted 'Deep State' con- spiraces. On X.com Gafà runs a parallel anti-Biden, pro-Trump stream of pure MAGA content, and much of this content is curi- ously all traced back to pro-Rus- sian shills: "Trump just won the election. Fuck you Dems. Swing at the king, ya best not miss." And it all makes sense… until you realise that, between March and November 2020 – the COV- ID year – Gafà was the sole user of the Twitter hashtag #GetThis- ManiacOffTheStage, in 24 tweets denigrating President Trump and tub-thumping for a Democrat win in that year's election. "Everything single thing he says is a life, #YoureFired", says his last tweet. Strange, but true. "Yes," he laughs. "I was a crit- ic of Trump; today I admit, I was wrong, I've opened my eyes. We know who the 'deep state' sup- ports, and we know Trump wants to break the 'deep state' and the CIA. John F. Kennedy was killed by the 'deep state' and they tried doing the same wioth Trump. "Trump is the one who can stop the war in Ukraine – because he treats Putin as one of the world's biggest leaders, and both men re- spect each other." Crisis inside Labour Inside Labour, Gafà rails against anyone opposed to Joseph Mus- cat's legacy. First it was against the Labour 'establishment' and foreign min- ister Evarist Bartolo over the lat- ter's unstinting criticism of Keith Schembri. "Don't think we have forgotten that you once attacked the Prime Minister. Even while you led a delegation abroad! Be- fore you judge Mr Schembri, I suggest you compare what you have achieved with his achieve- ments for the good of Malta." More recently, he started to take apart Robert Abela's administra- tion's soldiers. A special place of dislike was reserved for former Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer and his husband Randolph Debattista, the MP and CEO of the Labour Party. When asked whether his posting of the couple on holiday or kissing while criticising their politics is intended at employing homopho- bic prejudice, Gafà replies with disarming alacrity. "No, there is certainly nothing wrong in them kissing. My criticism towards Randolph and Cyrus is political – I won't judge anyone who is gay." His targets have also included Labour top brass like President Ramona Attard, OPM commu- nications chief Aleander Balzan, and recently Labour's youth lead- er Maria Ellul over a Facebook comment agreeing with a post criticising the two MEPs that did not support rival Roberta Metso- la's re-election as president of the European Parliament. Yet today Gafà can fire off his broadsides at a party that is in trouble for having to failed to re- new itself substantially beyond the political crisis provoked by the fall of Muscat, the man he cheerleads. Only that Gafà does not believe reconciliation with this dreaded past needs to take place. Instead, he views Labour's 'Gonzi phase' as a sign for panic inside the party. Guns blazing, he has taken aim at Robert Abela's administration's soft tissue. "La- bour spent 25 years criticising PN governments because nobody was accountable… Now we've turned exactly into that administration, a classic example being the power blackouts of the last days," Gafà posted, calling out energy and en- vironment minister Miriam Dalli. Weeks of intermittent blackouts have revealed an ailing power dis- tribution system, buckling under the pressure of increased demand – read, population – a corollary to right-wing concerns about mi- grant labour. Even the language Gafà espous- es shape-shifts, denigrating the "clique in Castille" (which he once was a member of) for having taken total control of Television Malta (what's new?) over a news article that reported record high sum- mer temperatures, to suggest that heightened demand for cooling appliances will lead to blackouts. Ultimately, his target is Robert Abela, the prime minister under whom so many rifts inside Labour are manifesting since the decima- tion of the Labour super-majority in the 2024 European elections. "I'm speaking on behalf of those 33,000 who chose not to vote La- bour this year. They see Abela not governing as he promised, and the arrogance inside Labour is greater than it ever was with the PN to- wards the end of 2013. "Unless there is an earthquake inside Labour, it faces the same fate as that of the PN, which scraped through an election in 2008 with just 1,500 votes and was then trounced by a majority of 36,000." Like many political observers, Gafà may have gazed into the crystal ball. But it's hard to think that Labour might want to take a leaf out of his book. a bone to pick with Abela's Labour