Barbs from the budget: Abela wins, but then goes too far

Faced with a budget that left more disposable income in most people’s pockets, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech tried his best to capitalise on the erosion of Robert Abela’s popularity among Labour voters.

Even in a delivery that was scattered and which even failed to convey a coherent message of change, the Opposition leader captured the public mood with a few jabs at a fatigued government “without head or tail”, prone to U-turns, and a Prime Minister “secluded in an ivory tower without doors and windows”. Grech cleverly pitted Robert Abela against his own ministers, including the finance minister Clyde Caruana.

“The minister for finance expressed his astonishment that in the US and China, they already have driverless taxis. I do not know if this was a dig aimed at the one sitting next to you. Because what we have today is a government without a driver, as you yourself suggested in an interview with MaltaToday,” Grech noted.

Grech did not spare Abela from harsh judgement, essentially describing him as a liar (“allergic to the truth”), a “second-hand” prime minister, a copy of his original “arrogant self”, and someone involved in “a political network which generates and hides corruption.”

Clearly, the main thrust of Grech’s speech was to remind his audience that Abela, who is losing authority in his party, can no longer be trusted to lead the country. Sitting next to his former internal rival, Adrian Delia, Grech lashed out at a PM who has “lost control” over a “fatigued” government that has lost its cohesion.

And while Grech pushed too far – quoting unrelated statistics to paint a picture of doom and gloom – his attack on a government which remains clueless on how to address problems of traffic and over-development, resonated with viewers experiencing a deterioration in their quality of life.

Abela’s counter-attack

A day later, Robert Abela relished the opportunity to lash out at Grech. His most effective approach was to attack Grech’s incompetence and lack of preparedness for government, tapping into opinion polls showing that a majority do not trust Grech to lead the country. He hammered this point with a fatal blow, craftily referring to a leaked draft of an incomplete pre-budget document from the PN, in which insiders kept asking, “where’s the beef?”

While slamming past Nationalist governments for being insensitive and disconnected from the public, Abela convincingly argued that under Grech, the PN has even lost its “competence”. He questioned Grech’s ability to manage the country’s finances effectively when he can’t even present his own party’s accounts and clear its multi-million debts. Turning the tables, Abela suggested that Labour was more eager for Grech to remain PN leader than the Nationalist Party itself, which was wracked by internal divisions. He even hinted that Adrian Delia, his former leadership rival, was the mole who leaked the pre-budget document – a claim outrightly rejected by Delia.

This appeared to be an attempt by Abela to divert attention from cracks in his own party, to ongoing scepticism within the PN about Grech’s ability to lead it to victory in 2027. Abela, who relishes these confrontations, was clearly winning the day, spurred on by the constant applause of his parliamentary group.

PM or schoolyard bully?

However, true to his character, Abela kept pressing, continually belittling the Opposition leader. At one point, he even seemed to take a dig at Grech’s portly appearance when he referenced a budget measure offering six months of free gym membership to young people. While noting that Grech did not appear to welcome this measure, Abela – a former bodybuilder who put his physique on show during a pre-budget stunt alongside social media gym rats Bulletproof – suggested it would be good for the Opposition leader to join a gym.

Abela was surely more entertaining in his delivery than Grech but his constant mockery risked making him look like a schoolyard bully, potentially alienating moderates put off by this unbecoming behaviour. The PM’s saving grace was that he was discussing a largely popular budget, making it less likely for people to view Grech as their advocate against an arrogant Prime Minister.

The risk of such confrontations is that they tend to turn a clash of political ideas into a spectacle akin to a wrestling match. While political leaders in Malta have levelled far more serious accusations at each other in the past, such a mud fight may further fuel public distrust in the political system.

Moreover, these exchanges seem to compensate for the lack of substantial policy differences, with both parties converging on tax cuts and benefits financed by a continually expanding economy.

Despite all the talk of a different economic model, the Opposition is increasingly reluctant to rock the boat in its bid to reassure both voters and business interests. And while Abela’s takedown of Grech tapped into widespread sentiment that Grech is not ready for government, the electorate may be in a more sober mood, expecting Abela to show more humility after being shown a yellow card in the MEP elections in June.