Six resignations in a matter of weeks have hit the Labour government and party hard, with Prime Minister and leader Robert Abela scrambling to contain the fall-out as he also contends with the results of the European Parliament and local council elections, which saw the PL's lead over the Nationalist Party cut down substantially.

Top officials have said they are quitting the party, and some are in a period of transition as they hand over their responsibilities to others. But it is no coincidence that this string of events has taken place within such a short period of time, and after the June elections.

Abela is trying his best to give the impression that this is all part of the game, and that resignations are an opportunity for a renewal. But, deep down, Labour is going through a crisis as it is now evident that people are not comfortable with Abela who, in response, is resorting to knee-jerk reactions that are further exposing the panic that has set at Castille and in Hamrun.

Chris Fearne was the first to throw in the towel, moving out of the Cabinet when he was accused of criminal wrongdoing following the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry into the now-annulled hospitals' deal.

Fearne had also been handpicked by Abela to take on the role of Malta's European Commissioner. Abela had asked him to reconsider, a suggestion Fearne refused, and had even resorted to putting pressure on the magistrate overseeing Fearne's case by saying that he (Abela) would wait until the magistrate gave his ruling on prima facie evidence before making his final decision. In the end, on 24 July the magistrate decreed that there is enough prima facie evidence for Fearne to stand trial, and Abela was forced to look elsewhere.

His choice fell on Glenn Micallef - and here comes the second resignation. Micallef had quit from the post of head of secretariat in the OPM's office in late January. It is not known whether this was in anticipation of what was to happen in Fearne's case. Micallef's name has now been put for approval by Europe's institutions.

In 20 years of European membership, Malta had always chosen a politician to represent it on the European Commission. This time, Abela chose otherwise. Maybe it's because he does not believe anyone on the Cabinet has enough skills for the job or so as not to cause further upsets by picking one over another.

Fearne's resignation from the Cabinet was followed by his decision not to remain as the party's deputy leader for parliamentary affairs.

The PL has two deputy leaders. The other one, for party affairs, is Daniel Micallef, but he also announced that he will step down - this decision was publicly announced right after the counting of the EP election votes and before the counting of the local council election votes; strange timing, indeed.

Micallef's resignation has opened a Pandora's Box within Labour, and has pushed it to hastily revise its statute regarding the eligibility of candidates for the post.

It is the third time that Labour has changed this rule in less than a decade.

In 2016, the statute was changed to allow MPs to contest for the post (previously they were barred from doing so), a move which was seen by many as Joseph Muscat's way of having Konrad Mizzi as deputy leader. Mizzi was eventually elected, but resigned three months later in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal. He had been replaced by Chris Cardona, then also an MP.

In 2020, the decision taken four years earlier was reversed. Once again, MPs were prohibited from contesting, and it was then said that the idea was to have a deputy leader who is not in Parliament so as to allow him to concentrate on party matters. And so we had the election of Daniel Micallef.

Now, in 2024, Labour has reversed the 2020 decision, and will now again allow MPs and MEPs to vie for the post. This third change, for such an important position in the PL's hierarchy, exposes a party in a state of confusion, or one that acts according to the leader's preferences at a given time.

Both elections for the two deputy leadership posts are set to be held in mid-September.

The discussion on the change of statute took place during an extraordinary general conference held behind closed doors on Friday. The media was not allowed to attend, a decision that exposed Labour's fears that the internal dissent it is facing could spill out more.

The decision to change the statute again came after the party's former secretary general, Jason Micallef, expressed his intention to contest. Abela was evidently not too happy with this, saying that people whose political career is over should not attempt to come back.

Jason Micallef, a close ally to Joseph Muscat, was persuaded to withdraw his name following a meeting with Abela, but it did not take long for him to receive a new role - he remains Valletta Agency chief, but is now also the PL's special delegate to oversee the implementation of the electoral manifesto, a post that clashes with the more official role occupied by Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi as Minister for Lands and Implementation of Election Manifesto.

The "creation" of this role for Jason Micallef is seen as a way for Abela to appease Micallef who, incidentally, was the last person to occupy the role of secretary general of the party, which was removed and replaced by a CEO when Muscat became leader.

This takes us to another resignation we had this week, that of PL CEO Randolph De Battista, whose replacement has already been announced - it is Leonid McKay. Debattista's resignation was not a surprise. Abela had admitted that there were differences of opinion, differences which came to the surface after the June elections.

Two other resignations, which were given prominence in the media, were that of Aleander Balzan, who had served as policy consultant to Abela, and Ronald Vassallo, who ran the Labour Party's communications office.

Put together, these resignations indicate so much trouble in the Labour paradise. For more than a decade, Labour's massive election wins boosted its confidence and possibly hid the cracks. Following the 8 June results, the situation has changed.