Joseph Muscat continues to play the underdog card. He seems to have an obsession with it. But, just as much as he was playing things down in 2013 – when it was clear to even the most ignorant that Labour were going to win – he is wrong now.
He started the race with a 36,000 advantage, you will all remember, and that is a comfortable lead. Added to this, he continues to enjoy more support in all the surveys that have been carried out so far. So one really wonders what he has in mind when he says that he is the underdog. It’s like saying that Juventus, who have won six leagues in a row in Italy, will not start off as favourites to win a seventh next season.
Muscat may score points in this regard with people who just listen to him. But he is certainly alienating those who understand what he is saying.
We will have a third inquiry. After the one that was initiated on allegations that the Prime Minister’s wife is the owner of Egrant, a company opened in Panama, and a second one that was opened on the OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri after allegations that he took kickbacks from the sale of passports from Brian Tonna, now we will have a third. This time is will be about allegations that Schembri – yes, him again – passed on money to Adrian Hillman, former director at The Times. Labour tried their best to say the eight box files submitted by Busuttil were empty. Well, they weren't empty after all.
If one inquiry was one too many for the Prime Minister, and a second inquiry was shameful confirmation that something is definitely wrong with this administration, a third inquiry is a disgraceful addition to an already shocking situation. And yet the Prime Minister continues to act as if nothing has happened, and is likely to keep Schembri if he is re-elected.
The PM’s defence is that Magistrate Aaron Bugeja has found nothing in what Busuttil presented him that regards the Egrant case. But we’ve known that right from the start. Busuttil never said he had evidence about Egrant, but the only way he can get things moving is to go to Magistrate Bugeja, considering that the police commissioner doesn’t hold Busuttil’s confidence. What Muscat conveniently omits is that what Busuttil presented concerns his right hand man. Muscat might sell it to the crowd that applauds him whatever he says and to people who just follow Super One or read l-orizzont, but to the rest of us he comes across as someone who is clutching at one single straw.
It’s no wonder that Muscat is avoiding the media like the plague. The announcement that he will not participate in a Broadcasting Authority press conference today – instead he will send Edward Zammit Lewis – is evidence that Muscat is not comfortable facing hard questions. He will gladly sit down with people who molly-coddle him but is then afraid of being challenged by real journalists. Unlike his counterpart Simon Busuttil who, the more pressed he is, the better he emerges, a trait that Lawrence Gonzi had too.
In other news from the campaign, the Nationalist Party said it will make mental health its main priority and turn Malta into a centre of excellence with regard to diabetes, while the Labour Party pledged changes to the rent laws.