Robert Abela has reached his pinnacle.  He has managed to clinch a victory for Labour that eclipses even Joseph Muscat’s. His trust ratings are sky high and the envy of any European leader. Yet Robert Abela’s brand is a tad confused.  Who is the real Robert Abela?

Is he the populist hero who “supports families” (Robert Abela jappoggja l-familji) or is he the man with the luxury yacht, sprawling properties and bulging bank accounts? Is he the compassionate family man who shed a tear as he thanked his daughter or is he the man who struck deals with alleged kidnappers and recidivists for his personal financial gain?

Is he the man who promises a beautiful future for Malta or the man whose company sold passports to Russian oligarchs and who then rented out his Zejtun property to help them circumvent the rules and obtain an EU passport they weren’t entitled to?

Is he the champion of social justice who protects workers and their income or does he seek only to enrich himself? Is he the protector of vulnerable pensioners or the shameless money grabber who charges 80,000 euro in overtime despite his earnings from the planning authority?

Is he the defender of the environment or the property developer who made hundreds of thousands of euro on his Iklin development with Gilbert Bonnici of Bonnici brothers?  Is he the saviour of Gozo or the man who dined with the property mogul who committed flagrant illegalities with his batching plant on public land?

It doesn’t seem to matter to the majority that the supposedly socialist Robert Abela represents the worst excesses of heartless capitalism. It certainly doesn’t matter that Abela promoted Rosianne Cutajar even though she “seriously breached” council of Europe rules.  It’s just fine to let Anton Refalo who took a piece of national heritage contest under Labour’s flag. It never mattered that Abela brought Malta to infringement procedures by the European Commission.  Being put on the FATF greylist under Abela’s leadership didn’t matter either.  It doesn’t matter that the European Commission has singled Malta out as the country with “significant shortcomings”.  Neither does it matter that the European Parliament highlighted Malta’s “weak management and control systems which do not provide adequate protection of EU funds against abuse by oligarchic structures”.

In a text adopted by 409 votes to 61, the European Parliament pointed to “the unprecedented magnitude of oligarchic groups which use government tools or criminal practices to benefit from EU funds with members of national posts and holders of political positions as part of the oligarchy”.

It’s all meaningless to Abela’s supporters, in no small part because they banded together, united against a common enemy - the PN, and those who according to Abela conspired with them.  That’s the independent media organisations.  The editor of one of Malta’s daily newspapers was unfairly and abusively accused by the prime minister of “conniving with the PN’s chief strategist at Costa coffee”.

Robert Abela, the man who threatened to shut down the Caruana Galizia inquiry and who subsequently and conveniently refused to implement the inquiry’s recommendations resorted to public attacks against the free media. If Abela could be so intimidating and threatening towards the independent media during an election campaign, what will he get up to after his resounding victory?

Abela paints the independent media as the real villains to his supporters.  Abela demonised journalists for pursuing the truth, for demanding answers and for bringing up uncomfortable issues. His open hostility and aggression during the campaign, especially when damaging and embarrassing revelations about him were exposed, was clear for all to see. Abela will now be empowered to demolish those who dare ask awkward questions. He will ruthlessly extinguish those “spiteful” attempts at exposing the truth - or ‘spin’ as he labels it. His government will be even more united in its unassailable concealment of the facts.  They will claim to have an overwhelming electoral mandate to reject those impertinent freedom of information requests. After all, the people have chosen.  They’re just not interested in ‘negativity’ as Joseph Muscat triumphantly pointed out in his Facebook post.

The people have no right to know the truth - they’ve given up that right by overwhelmingly voting to support Labour’s secrecy. The people are only there to cash their 100 euro cheques and vote Labour to let Abela and his chosen ones get on with the business of secrecy.

It doesn’t really matter what Abela believes.  It doesn’t matter what he’s done.  It’s irrelevant whether he’s abused of his position at the planning authority to get his Zejtun property illegalities sanctioned and then bought it for peanuts. Nobody’s interested why Marvin Gaerty, the former Tax commissioner failed to send his assessors to enquire how Abela bought a 2,270 square metre villa for only 600,000 euro. Did Abela contact Gaerty about that property as he did about Bernard Grech’s tax issues?  No one is bothered about how many thousands Abela made renting his Zejtun property to Russian oligarchs helping them circumvent the rules.

Nobody’s fussed about how Christian Borg managed to get a permit to build apartments and garages on the Zabbar plot that Abela had rights over? No one is asking why Abela gave up those rights over the land to Christian Borg and made a quick 45,000 euro once Abela’s planning authority had issued the necessary building permits.

In any decent democracy such serious accusations would trigger immediate investigations - by the tax authorities, the planning authority, the financial intelligence agency unit, and the police. They would kick off magisterial inquiries.  They would unleash an almighty avalanche from the free press with demands for answers to their burning questions.  They would spell the end of his political career and potential prosecution.

Instead Abela is rewarded with overwhelming support at the polling booth and a landslide victory for his party. He is now just unstoppable.