There is only one reason why the Labour Party issued that silly statement late in the afternoon on Freedom Day.

The official activities in Vittoriosa marking the departure of British troops and the withdrawal of the Royal Navy from Malta had finished more than six hours before.

Just before 6pm, media houses received a statement from the Labour Party condemning what it described as the Opposition Leader's boycott of the official ceremony. It went on to accuse Bernard Grech of not knowing what his constitutional duties are, saying that Grech was trying to destroy what Prime Ministers and Opposition Leaders, led by the President, had built together when Malta celebrates its national holidays, including Independence and Freedom Day.

The thing is, soon after the event had taken place at the Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa, the Department of Information - which is the government's mouthpiece - had issued a press released with accompanying photos saying that the Opposition Leader had been represented at the ceremony by PN MP David Agius. There had been no boycott of the event by the Opposition Leader. If there had been one, the Opposition would not have been represented at the ceremony. Not by Bernard Grech, not by his representative.

In reply, the Nationalist Party said that Grech had other commitments on the day and had sent Agius to be there in his name. After all, the PN argued, Prime Minister Robert Abela had done the same thing in 2022 when he could not attend the official ceremony. So was Abela boycotting Freedom Day official activities in 2022?

Stretching the argument further, it is not the first time that the Prime Minister was not physically present for official ceremonies on national holidays. Just to give some examples, it was Owen Bonnici who represented PM Abela at the Independence Day official ceremony in two successive years, 2022 and 2023, and Chris Fearne had gone instead of Joseph Muscat in 2017. Using Labour's argument, Abela and Muscat were boycotting Independence Day ceremonies. They were not, because they sent their representatives.

So why did the Labour Party issue that - we repeat - silly statement on Freedom Day?

The intention was solely to incite the grassroots of the party. For Labour hardliners, Freedom Day signifies the ultimate "victory" of their hero Dom Mintoff against British rule, and the narrative that the Opposition Leader had boycotted the official ceremony was intended to instil in them anger and more hatred towards the Nationalist Party.

But why does Labour want to drum up support from the Labour fanatics?

We're moving closer to an election, and the Labour Party wants each and every one of its core voters to participate in the voting process. Following last June's elections for the European Parliament and local councils, which saw the PN substantially cut down Labour's 2022 winning margin, the Labour Party has understood that it needs all of its supporters' backing.

That, in last year's polls, the number of voters dropped to 73% (EP) and 60% (local councils) indicates that the number of people who are disillusioned with politics is growing between one poll and another. Among them, there was a number of Labour supporters too.

The PL knows that it has a larger voter base than the Nationalist Party. If it can make full use of it, it is more than likely that it will win again, for a fourth consecutive time. If, on the other hand, Labour voters opt to stay at home on election day, the PN's chances improve.

Labour also knows that its performance in this legislature has distanced many of the so-called floating voters away from it. The hospitals' inquiry and the subsequent arraignment of top Labour people is the peak of a long list of episodes that have harmed the Labour Party and pushed people away from it.

That Labour then continues to take initiatives which protect wrongdoers and make it harder for criminal activity to be exposed - we're talking about the magisterial inquiry reform and the news this past week that the Prime Minister is mulling the idea of changing the law with regard to requests for investigation into alleged ethical breaches by ministers - does not help its cause with the voters who think before choosing their preferences.

In light of all this, Labour is doing its utmost to get all Labour hardliners back on the party's wagon, and statements such as the one it issues on the "Opposition Leader's boycott of Freedom Day" go down well with people who see the PN as the enemy.

Labour will likely come up with similar moves over the next months as it seeks to please its core voters, believing that it requires the support of all of them to retain its hold on Castille.