The Labour Party post-mortem has begun as the vote counting of the European Parliament election continue to reveal a narrowing margin between the PL and the PN, and some are blaming certain government ministers for the result.

Former GWU official and Labour TV host and pundit Manuel Micallef placed the blame for the result squarely on “some ministers,” saying that Prime Minister Robert Abela had carried the party practically by himself.

“Thank God it was the Prime Minister for us to get these votes! A post-mortem tomorrow from some of the ministers on their work and attitude,” he wrote.

Former MEP Marlene Mizzi meanwhile pulled even fewer punches in a comment on a Facebook post: “A particular minister tried to take people for a ride to, in his mind, win 100 votes.  Deceit irritates all those who are honest,” she wrote.

“He tried to get 100 votes by deceit and instead made the party lose 1,000 votes of those who are genuine and honest.  Well done,” she continued.

Mizzi didn’t mention any names, but she is ostensibly referring to Housing Minister Roderick Galdes who was at the centre of a voter fraud scandal after 99 voters were transferred onto an uninhabitable social housing block in the battleground locality of Siggiewi.

A court confirmed that the 99 voters in question did not actually live at their registered address, and had their addresses transferred back to where they were previously registered.

Meanwhile, former Minister Chris Cardona who has been absent from the public eye for quite some time now, offered his two cents on the result, which he described as one which put the party at a cross-roads.

He said that the PL had won the election, but questioned what exactly it had won. “It won because it got a few thousand votes more than the Nationalist Party.  Nothing more, nothing less,” he said, adding that one needs to see the results of individual candidates and the results of the local councils.

Cardona also said that the PN has nothing to be happy about because the party “got nothing” from the “substantial reduction” that the Labour Party suffered.

“Those thousands of Labourites who decided to warn the Labour government were not comfortable to take the step to vote for the PN.  They chose, almost collectively, to vote for independent candidates,” he said.  “While they continue to allow that clique who lead with the politics of hate run the party, the PN will never recover.”

However, there is nothing really to back Cardona’s interpretation up on that point: indications thus far show that while independent candidates have performed far better than the past, the PN has also registered its highest ever total of votes for an EP election.

Finally, Cardona said that he had met, listened to and seen “genuine Labourites with tears in their eyes, some frothing at the mouth, saying that they had not voted for the PL for the first time in their lives.”

He questioned why some were picking fights and being stubborn with these people.  “Do you see what you got now?  Roll your sleeves up, listen to the people, and pay attention.”

Other usually vocal Labour exponents have been decidedly silent on social media as more details about the result filter out.