Some things I am told only in person, hence the delay.
When I wrote that it was over for Robert Abela, it was not a hyperbolic attack in reaction to surveys. It was an objective description of how Labour Party members are thinking. If you spend a significant number of years in the Labour Party, socialising and being active with other members and delegates you will adopt the Party’s collective mindset. You start thinking through this mindset and you learn the rules and science behind it. When I wrote that article, it wasn’t just my observation – it is a unanimous conclusion that everyone in the Labour Party is gradually coming to terms with it. I know how they think, what they feel, their fears and their ambitions. Once again, the issue in this case is very simple. Labour Party members want a winning Prime Minister and not someone who is losing badly at the polls and this is an unwritten golden rule in the Labour Party: Robert Abela has broken this rule and it is over for him.
An internal Labour Party coup is being organised and there are no longer any ongoing pretences that Robert Abela enjoys the respect as Labour Party leader. Labour Party rebel MPs are very close to obtaining a majority for a vote of no confidence against Robert and deep organisational work is underway to mount an internal push to change the leader. There is an ongoing search for a Labour Party leader who will be committed to cleaning up the Party and waging a total war against corruption. The candidate must be ready to lead the Party in Opposition but the plan is to make him or her Prime Minister during this term and remove the Attorney-General and the current Police Commissioner: basically, the plan is to fire and remove from the system all those who abetted and supported corruption so that Labour can come out clean and spend another term in office.
Miriam Dalli and Silvio Schembri are backing the rebellion and Silvio Schembri is taking a pass over his leadership ambitions, realising that his association with Robert Abela is a liability (Silvio Schembri is a member of Robert Abela’s inner clique and was his preferred candidate for a leadership succession). Miriam Dalli has kept her intentions to mount a challenge to Robert Abela but doesn’t have strong support from MPs and delegates, for obvious reasons that were constantly mentioned on this website. Meanwhile, top delegates are meeting ex-delegates and rebels and asking them to join the effort once the push for the new leader begins – they want all hands on deck to make this happen. I was also approached and replied that although I would support this initiative, I would retain my independence and keep my publishing business.
Robert Abela clearly, doesn’t have a majority in the cabinet, and the numbers with the parliamentary group are still being worked up. What’s clear though that Robert Abela’s inner clique is getting disrupted and his closest people are dropping their loyalty to him. To put it simply, Robert Abela can’t trust anyone in the Labour Party not even the members of his inner circle. The only ones who have not yet betrayed him in some way are his family members. Basically, everyone is jumping ship and everyone is quickly coming to the conclusion that Robert Abela is a gross liability – this means that no one wants to associate themselves with him.
Robert Abela’s last allies are that fraud Saviour Balzan and the Labour Youths who as described earlier, are simply looking for a job or a lucrative public contract and not to improve the country and the Party. This is also why MaltaToday ran the story about all of a sudden Robert Abela saying that he agrees with raising the minimum wage after Alex Saliba rugged him of this proposal through this website. Robert Abela didn’t discuss this issue with the cabinet and he is now conducting politics by himself separate from the Party. Robert Abela has been obsessed with this website ever since it forced the resignation of Rosianne Cutajar from the government parliamentary group and is now behaving reactively to its content. He has already, countless times, warned delegates and Party members not to speak to this website, but that only made things worse for him as more people ended up approaching me.
There is also the possibility that Robert Abela will make an alliance with Joseph Muscat’s faction and this may already be happening as I write, although Robert doesn’t want Joseph Muscat to be involved in the Party in any way: he only wants his support and network. Joseph Muscat wants to stay out of prison – a very good deal can be made between them.
It’s good to see this push being organised. Two years ago no one in the Party would have wanted to associate themselves with me. Now, the tables are turning and they are turning really hard.
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Historian and Publisher
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