Alfred Sant, a regular contributor to this newspaper, has turned his guns on his fellow columnists. He’s targeting those who dare criticise Labour. He’s using his platform and his privileged position as MEP not to improve freedom of expression, not to protect journalists and opinion writers from his own government’s SLAPPS but to heap scorn on them.
“Too much wailing” was Dr Alfred Sant’s piece. The wailing seems to be getting to him - for good reason. Wailing means crying with grief or anger - or both. Sant is right. We are wailing. Wailing at his Labour government’s shocking abuse of power; at the fake jobs it gifts its MPs to collect another salary. We’re wailing at the hundreds of millions that were squandered when half our health service was handed over to a gang of crooks.
We’re wailing over the millions frittered on gala dinners and Malta Film awards while our energy distribution network was left to fall apart, inflicting costly and lengthy power cuts in the middle of a heatwave. We’re wailing over the public land given away for peanuts to “friends of friends”, to use one of Sant’s favourite phrases. And the destruction of our environment through ODZ developments. We’re wailing over the staggering debts - 4 billion euro - that Robert Abela has burdened us with in order to retain power. We’re wailing over the promises Labour broke - meritocracy, the end of corruption, transparency, a new Gozo hospital, a new mental health hospital, a refurbished St Luke’s hospital, 4000 students at the American University of Malta, a new nursing school, medical tourism. And we’re wailing over the deaths of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Jean Paul Sofia and Myriam Pace.
Alfred Sant is worried. “Those who regularly write to lament about how in their view Malta under a Labour administration has become Sodom and Gomorrah are probably damaging the very cause they believe they’re promoting”, he commented without stating what it is he thinks “they’re promoting”. That’s not what’s bothering him. What’s really eating Sant is that those critics expose Labour’s systematic abuse of power, Labour’s endorsement of institutionalised cronyism and Robert Abela’s defence of criminal behaviour.
“The arguments, the instances (sic), the criticisms, and the rhetoric of scandal and protest that they deploy are so repetitive and so predictable that they have become monotonous”. Aha, so that’s why Sant is so concerned - because we’re getting too boring, too monotonous. That’s rich coming from the master of monotone himself.
“For them the rot began since the Labour administration came into office. Now any reasonable person will accept that previously rampant abuses were allowed full space. And where were they in those days?” Alfred Sant asked. Since you ask, Dr Sant, they were whole-heartedly voting to keep you out of power, and as far away from Castille as possible, to spare the country more of your reckless catastrophes, to stop you destroying their future.
I’ll pick being “so repetitive and so predictable” any day over being unpredictable and erratic. That’s what defined Alfred Sant’s thankfully short span leading the country. In those few months as prime-minister Alfred Sant became notorious for three terrible decisions. He froze Malta’s application to join the EU. He abolished VAT and introduced his alternative, CET, which was so looney that his own Minister of Finance Lino Spiteri threw in the towel. And finally and self-destructively he managed to pick a fight with Dom Mintoff labelling him a traitor.
“The economy has been - still is - performing quite well, even if that is triggering social problems. But it still is allowing people to feel a sense of security which makes them less than receptive to excessive wailing”, Sant commented.
Sant has been - still is - detached from reality. Just two days after Sant’s claim that people feel a sense of security the latest Eurobarometer was published. It shows that 85% of the population expects their standard of living to fall. Only 1% has seen their standard of living improve. Just 28% think that things are going in the right direction in the country.
In January 2023 75% judged the economy to be doing well. By July it was just 56%. Now just 11% believe the economy will be better in one year’s time. The vast majority, 75%, are worried about the rising cost of living. They certainly don’t feel a sense of security. They’re not earning an MEP’s salary, like Alfred Sant is.
That’s the saddest of ironies. For the last decade Sant has been benefitting from the handsome remuneration afforded him by the very institution he fought tooth and nail to prevent us from joining - the EU. Alfred Sant is the man who froze Malta’s application to join the EU and then mounted a NO campaign, with the help of Joseph Muscat to keep us out. But he did far worse.
When he was roundly and soundly defeated in the EU referendum he falsely claimed that his crackpot partnership had won. With true Trumpian recklessness he brought his supporters onto the streets having fed them the big lie that Partnership won. He thought nothing of putting people’s safety at risk. He knew he lost. He understood that the democratic will of the nation was to join the EU. He attempted to usurp their decision.
Alfred Sant lied to his supporters and to the nation. That is something that he cannot accuse Labour’s critics of. He attacked columnists for being predictable, repetitive and monotonous. But he can’t accuse them of lying. Because criticism of Labour is based on hard facts and evidence.
92% of all Maltese citizens believe that Malta benefitted from joining the EU. But stubborn Sant still regrets not convincing the nation to vote for his confected Partnership.
The kindest explanation for Sant’s false claims of victory for the No campaign is that he was deluded, detached from reality or that his judgement was warped, because the alternative explanation would be that he knew he’d lost and lied about it. In any normal country he would have been dumped years ago. Instead he’s still representing us at the European Parliament and targeting opinion writers.