Looking Back 2023: The Muscat machine: humming in the background

Dislike Joseph Muscat all you want, but the erstwhile Labour prime minister and leader has a brand to curate and he will do it to the best of his abilities.

Bereft of the laudatory party machine he once commanded, Muscat’s stock is no longer what it once was: his net asset value has decreased, much of the old goodwill too, but his metrics and ratios always look positive when he makes his mediatic appearances. Damaged by an ongoing magisterial inquiry that could suggest some sort of criminal action over his role in the Vitals procurement fiasco, or perhaps on a series of financial transactions that took place through third parties after he stepped down as PM, Muscat has used his solo performances to his benefit. And 2023 was not bereft of mediatic performances.

Inside the parliamentary public accounts committee, he parried with the Opposition yet again to defend Labour’s energy project – the Delimara gas plant built by Electrogas, and the man accused of ordering the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

But in the court of public opinion, a party soldier – Manuel Cuschieri – keeps broadcasting his old master’s voice. On Smash TV, Muscat sits down for easy interviews which allow him to craft what he knows best: a deft message that can be easily understood, believed, rationalised and repeated. When the time comes, he can depend on a loyal cadre of Labour voters who will defend him outside the courtroom, should he ever tread its doorstep as a defendant.

Dog-whistle politics

It is the classic Muscat playbook: dog-whistle politics for loyal supporters, and a challenge to his adversaries. Time and again he has attacked the magisterial inquiry led by Gabriella Vella, launched from a Repubblika complaint, as a dirty game to see him hauled in court. “I know I have the people’s support, and even if I’m left alone to fight it, they would have wasted two years of my life for nothing to happen,” Muscat says, confident there was nothing to incriminate him.

His detractors, he has called “freemasons”, an establishment connected to the ‘blue’ togas. “They know I took from them their entitlement to stay in power... it’s been the destiny of all Labour leaders, because Labour is the party of those who came from nothing. Mintoff, the son of a cook. Sant, the son of a civil servant. Me, the son of a salesman.” A fireworks importer of some wealth, actually. “They cannot win democratically, so they weaponise the judiciary.”

Muscat accuses Vella of running an inquiry that leaks like a sieve, saying her family are supporters of Repubblika active on social media. He also accuses public healthcare doctors who also run private surgeries, of being opponents to the healthcare PPP he tried setting up with Vitals, and later Steward.

“It’s doctors who run the system, and you know how some doctors want their patients to be seen by them ‘privately’ to keep accessing the public healthcare system.” Muscat accuses them of resisting changes to “epochal, bad habits.”

“Nobody can interfere with them. Mintoff tried it, the doctors striked, then Karin Grech was murdered, because of her father Edwin Grech, who was socially boycotted. He died without ever seeing justice... when someone was assassinated in our time, we saw arraignments.”

Muscat’s interviews are strategic: deny any alleged malfeasance, compare like-with-like for previous Nationalist administrations, and undermine accusers. For example, if he got paid a handsome consultancy fee from Accutor, once connected to Vitals Global Healthcare, he denies it is a kickback: “Some legal genius wants me to disprove their accusations... just as if finding a knife in my kitchen is evidence that I intend killing someone.”

Muscat can always turn to the Egrant affair when needed, given that the magisterial inquiry disproved his ownership of a secret Panama offshore company. Indeed, that is why he dubs the Vitals magisterial inquiry his ‘second Egrant’.

There is so much speculation that Muscat might one day return to politics, or that his wife could consider a stab at the general elections. But time and time again, he has said he will give Robert Abela the space he needs.

While politics can serve as a buffer from criminal prosecution, especially the kind that is portrayed as politically tendentious, it seems the Muscats are keener on keeping their branding machine humming in the background.