In May of this year, just as Robert Abela was pushing the Labour Party into a crisis with his corrupt and fraudulent handling of the case of Jean-Paul Sofia, I wrote an article about how Robert Abela had lost control over the Labour Party. The Labour Party became broken into various factions with two main opposing leadership contenders: Silvio Schembri from the Robert Abela faction, and Miriam Dalli. Then there is Joseph Muscat’s faction and the rebels like Clyde Caruana, Chris Fearne and Randolph Debattista who back no current leadership contender.
As of late July, Robert Abela began losing significant support from Labour Party delegates. The Party’s delegates are basically, the ideological backbone of the Party. Losing support from the delegates also means losing the support of the Labour Party’s main engine. This situation consolidated Robert Abela’s position as an absolute monarch in the Party where he closed himself further inward to his inner circle, trusting a very small number of people and issuing diktats through them. So, Robert Abela rules with the support of a handful of officials and MPs who still support him and this means that he has turned the Labour Party into a cult. The only significant element in the Labour Party which still supports Robert Abela is the youth wing which is unprincipled, corrupted and exclusively motivated by lucrative public jobs and contracts. Basically, the Labour Party’s youth wing (Forum ?g?a?ag? Laburisti) has become the equivalent of a corrupt political employment centre for youths despairing with Malta’s housing crisis.
Since then the Labour Party conducted several surveys some of them by Vincent Marmara to check on its support. Upon being notified of their result, unsurprisingly, Robert Abela asked to hide these surveys fearing the worst. Last Sunday’s survey exposed that the Labour Party has not just lost votes, but it has also lost its absolute majority, and this explains Robert Abela’s growing desperation to the extent of openly and publicly justifying crimes and corruption. Robert Abela’s fear has now materialised and this will eventually lead to his downfall. Expect to see him crack and go insane more often.
After losing the support of delegates, Robert Abela hoped that the Labour Party members would save him. In fact, the reason why Rosianne Cutajar and Justyne Caruana attended the general conference is that Robert Abela made a huge effort to invite as many members and Labour Party “influencers” as possible – irrespective of their crimes or who they are.
A Labour Party leader loses the support of his delegates on matters of principle, but he loses the support of his members when they realise he is a losing candidate. There is one thing that Labour Party members don’t tolerate after experiencing 25 years in opposition being constantly beaten and humiliated: a leader who is going to lose the election. Robert Abela’s worst nightmare is knowing that the Labour Party members realise he is a losing candidate and is rejected by his faithful as a result. Gradually, as the realisation seeps in with the Party members that Robert Abela is about to lose the elections, the rebellion and the discontent in the Labour Party no longer remain sterile and transient – it becomes more active and vocal while the members complain and bad-mouth the Dear Leader in the clubs and bars. “We are going to lose the government” is going to be the main and trending discussion among many Labourites.
It’s over for Robert Abela. This is a downward spiral he can’t escape from.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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