Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1530881
MATTHEW FARRUGIA mfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt 10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 DECEMBER 2024 2024 LOOKING BACK Going all in on Chris Fearne At the start of the year, Ab- ela identified Chris Fearne as Malta's next European Com- missioner. The now-former deputy prime minister and health minister had been cred- ited with successfully handling the pandemic and was seen as a veteran politician who ticked all the boxes for the post. However, the conclusion of the Vitals inquiry changed everything. Despite the charg- es against Fearne, Abela main- tained that he would still nom- inate him for the European Commission, stating at the time, "the charges alone will not change my decision to nominate him for commission- er." Days later, when formal charg- es were filed against Fearne, he resigned from Cabinet and withdrew his nomination. De- spite this, Abela continued to bet on Fearne, writing an open letter asking him to reconsider his decision. As Fearne was arraigned and court proceedings began in the summer, Abela told MaltaTo- day that he would re-nominate him for the post if the court did not find enough prima facie ev- idence to indict him. But this did not happen. With Fearne indicted, Abela had no choice but to find a new nomi- nee for Malta's European Com- missioner, eventually selecting his chief of staff, Glenn Mi- callef. Micallef, a relatively young nominee with no executive ex- perience at the time, was ulti- mately given a weak portfolio — a far cry from the new Med- iterranean portfolio Abela had lobbied for. In the end, Abela's gamble flopped, and Fearne now sits as a backbencher, focused on clearing his name in court. Playing the Muscat card The gamble to bring back Jo- seph Muscat into the fold was set in motion on 25 January when Manuel Cuschieri, Mus- cat's most ardent supporter, posted on Facebook asking whether people agreed that Muscat should return to the Labour fold as an MEP. The post sparked a frenzy among the party's grassroots. The very next day, MaltaTo- day visited Muscat's office to ask if he intended to run for the MEP seat. "I cannot ignore the people," he replied, but refused to confirm his intentions. Seeing the euphoria this in- spired among the Labour base, Abela sought to capitalise on it in the months leading up to the MEP and local council elections, announcing that he would not stop Muscat from contesting on the PL ticket. In doing so, Abela hoped to soften the blow of record ab- stentionism, which had been affecting the party, according to polls at the time. However, he also risked putting himself in the shadow of his predeces- sor, who was arguably more popular among the grassroots than Abela himself. On top of this, Abela further risked alienating moderate vot- ers who were unwilling to see the return of the controversial figure riddled with corruption claims. It was a gamble he was willing to take. Muscat played along, attend- ing events organised by MEP candidates in a clear attempt to mobilise the vote. At one such event, he told the crowd: "The question is not whether Joseph is running or not… the ques- tion is whether you will go out to vote." As the months passed and the elections drew nearer, Abe- la doubled down on his bet on Muscat, defending his prede- cessor following the conclusion of the Vitals inquiry. Abela even went so far as to attack the mag- istrate conducting the inquiry, painting a picture that his gov- ernment was under attack by "the establishment" – the judi- ciary and journalists included. The election result left the Labour Party with a bitter taste since it saw its majority cut to a mere 8,000 votes. It's hard to say whether Abela's gamble prevented a bigger disaster by arresting the haemorrhage of core voters to the abstention camp, or whether it alienated more voters, disappointed by the overtures towards Muscat. Keeping Muscat loyalists close Abela's latest gamble was to keep both his friends close and his enemies even closer in the PL's internal elections. In September, the Labour Par- ty searched for two new deputy leaders and a new president, as the previous officeholders an- nounced they would not seek re-election. Ian Borg, who is seen favour- ably by both Abela and Muscat factions within the PL, secured his role as deputy leader for parliamentary affairs in an un- contested race. However, the other deputy leader post was the subject of controversy when party stal- wart Jason Micallef, a hard-line Muscat loyalist, announced his intention to run. Micallef's de- cision sparked fears of a Mus- cat takeover by proxy among MPs and party insiders. To prevent this while still making a compromise with the Muscat camp, Abela accepted MEP Alex Agius Saliba's bid for the vacancy, while Micallef withdrew his nomination. Agi- us Saliba, while certainly close to Muscat, is seen as more moderate than Micallef, though he has no qualms about chal- lenging Abela, as evidenced by his abstention during the vote for Roberta Metsola's election as European Parliament presi- dent. Meanwhile, Abela's choice for party president, Norma Sali- ba, lost the internal election to Alex Sciberras by a whisker. While Saliba was seen as some- one Abela could count on to toe the line, Sciberras, a vocal outsider, emerged victorious. This gamble left Abela with no absolute loyalists within the PL's top brass, though it did bridge the gap between the two factions. Nonetheless, the gam- ble left the Prime Minister with a weaker hand inside the party. If a week is a long time in politics, 2024 was an eternity. The year that rocked the governing party to its core and ended its supermajority also saw Prime Minister Robert Abela risking it all in a series of gambles, some of which paid off, while others are still in play. Whereas 2023 had been characterised by a series of embarrassing U-turns for the Prime Minister, 2024 emerged as the year in which Abela played a game of high stakes.