Last week we had another European Council in Brussels. This time the matter on leader’s agenda was the exorbitant rise in the price of natural methane. Most European consumers are facing important hikes in energy bills in the coming months amid concerns as to whether enough natural gas will reach European homes from Russian supplier Gazprom.
Coming out of the European Council, Malta’s own Prime Minister Robert Abela declared that he appealed to European leaders not to raise energy tariffs notwithstanding the higher gas prices. Abela’s statement was proudly represented by his own TV station: TVM and his other one: ONE News, without much of a question. It seems that in Malta few care to put news in a timeline, putting politicians against facts and statements last year or the year before.
Where that to be the case, any TVM reporter would have asked the Prime Minister: Where do the recent gas price hikes put us in the context of Enemalta’s legal obligation to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Socar for which we were paying from our noses for the last five years?
According to Electrogas’ own documentation leaked by the Daphne Project in April 2018, Malta was being overcharged by over 40 million euros a year by Socar which was acting simply as a paper pusher, effectively buying natural gas from Shell and simply seeing to its delivery to Marsaxlokk, and then pocketing the whopping 40 million commission.
Not a bad deal, Robert right? I guess our Prime Minister did not have the face to explain to European leaders that his continuity government has foisted upon us his own version of a Gazprom already for the last five years.
It takes cheek to come to the camera and say that the Labour Government was calling on European leaders not to raise energy prices when they have been doing that same thing in Malta for at least five years through the stinking Electrogas deal. It takes a load of cheek, and Lord they have an unending supply of it. They have so much cheek, that they can put it energy bills on the agenda of the budget speech, go around the topic, admitting that there is a screw up and concluding the phrase by saying they will not reimburse over 50 million euro in overcharged bills.
That cheek is not limited to energy. It is rather a labour badge which they sport at least twice a week. On Tuesday for instance a resident of Santa Venera sent me a link to a Facebook post by Aaron Farrugia saying that he is looking into financing the covering of the Regional Road tunnel entrance to eliminate the inconvenience of the thousands of households in the area. This smelt funny to me, as I knew that PN councillor Darren Carabott had flagged an old Labour promise on that tunnel. In fact, going a few years back Minister Herrera had pledged that the Government had allocated the funds to see to the project’s development. Going back a few more years you realise that Joseph Muscat had pledged to cover that tunnel already in 2017 – black on white – on Labour’s election manifesto. It now remains uncovered, and not budgeted for.
Labour’s politics is founded on the unwavering belief that the Maltese have a memory akin to a goldfish. They say the goldfish will remember a few days back at max. They must sincerely believe that given that they constantly repeat old promises, repackage them, rebrand them and present them as new. The racing track, on grounds now found to be assigned to the Metro development, is a classical case. Promised in 2013. Promised in 2017. Promised again in 2021. Yesterday we saw the Carnival headquarters and its glimmering artwork taken out of the closet again. Promised in 2013. The site in Marsa is still a massive swamp. Not the foundations, not the doors, nor the plugs, a swamp of soil and bad grass - nine years later.
Indeed, the exercise becomes trickier when it concerns communities which are closely attached to an area or a particular activity, but that does not deter them much. In Gozo for instance, Robert Abela promised, to roaring much applause, that he will give the Qortin landfill to the people, converting it into a beautiful park. Bravo Mr Prime Minister, but a small detail please. Labour had already pledged to do that in 2014, then in 2015, then closed the landfill in 2017, and then reopened it to domestic waste in 2018. Now pledging to close it anew. So if you follow me, this is a case of keeping a promise in the past, then breaking it, then pledging to keep it again.
The amazing thing in this, apart for Labour’s ability to sell hot air so brilliantly, is Maltese media’s ineffectiveness in exposing the show. To some extent you cannot really blame journalists. I mean, you need to go back a few years and search for when Labour made that exact same promise or something related to it and kept it on the shelf. It’s a hard job.
It’s also something we need to do ourselves as citizens. For everything Labour says we need to read the story behind the story. If Norma Saliba won’t do it, we need to be a bit of journalist ourselves. Maybe draw up a mini checklist: And, When did they promise this again? And which contractor is set out to become rich from this? It does not take much really. Try to Google it or search the Labour Manifestos of 2013 and 2017. You’ll be amazed how many hits you get form years past. Yes, politics with Labour can be such fun!
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