No sooner had the PN announced the winner of its leadership contest, that Robert Abela was spouting more of his shallow nonsense. According to Abela the close results between the two PN contenders for leader is "proof that PN is divided down the middle". When Robert Abela was elected Labour party leader in 2020 only 53% of party members eligible to vote gave him their support.  The rest stayed away (1,312 members) or voted for his rival (6,798 members). Is that proof that Labour was divided almost down the middle?

Robert Abela senses the threat of a revitalised opposition party. He's understandably doing all he can to extinguish the newly found flame of enthusiasm generated by the PN leadership contest.   "The PN leadership election result," Abela claimed "is a sign of party chaos". At least none of the PN leadership contestants made false claims that the list of eligible voters had been tampered with. That's what Abela did in 2020.  He filed a vote-tampering complaint when Chris Fearne appeared to be heading to victory. Just days before the Labour leadership election, Fearne led by 55.4% against Abela's 44.6% in the polls.

So Abela tried to sow doubt about the fairness of the election process, painting himself as the wronged underdog. He claimed that unauthorised persons had added people to the list of eligible voters, ostensibly to favour Fearne.  The Labour Party's electoral commission investigated his complaint.  They found no shred of evidence that anybody tampered with the list.  Abela's claim was false.

Despite being Deputy Prime Minister and deputy leader of the party, Chris Fearne managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. That was partly his fault.  With staggering arrogance he invited Robert Abela to his victory party he had already booked at MFCC before voting had even started. 

But Fearne's defeat was mostly engineered by Joseph Muscat and his wife Michelle who worked frantically to ensure that Fearne would never become Prime Minister.  Michelle and her husband, the disgraced former Prime Minister, needed Abela in Castille, their very future depended on it.

Abela knows what real chaos looks like - a disgraced former Prime Minister forced out of office under the darkest of clouds, with revelations of his close proximity to the main suspect behind the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, his communication through his chief of staff with that very same suspect being pursued by the police, his secret Whatsapp group, the bogus job as a reward for the middleman who procured the assassination of the journalist, a dodgy letter from his chief of staff to the main suspect instructing him to put the blame for the journalist's murder on another cabinet member, Chris Cardona, and then his wife actively canvassing against the deputy prime minister and in support of a backbencher who had been her husband's consultant. 

That chaos was making headlines, of the wrong type, around the world. Thirty separate media houses including Reuters, BBC and Al Jazeera were granted access by the Labour Party to cover the leadership election. Labour's chaos was humiliating Malta around the world - and more was to follow.  Konrad Mizzi was chased out of the Labour parliamentary group, while secretly given a lucrative consultancy contract with the Tourism Ministry. Chris Cardona was pushed out after his name came up in court in relation to the Caruana Galizia murder, allegations Cardona denied. 

Abela's false allegation of voter list tampering, together with Michelle Muscat's ruthless campaigning for Abela, overturned Fearne's significant lead. The gut punch to Fearne was so powerful that he disappeared for a few days with no indication of what he would do next. Fearne stayed away from Abela's celebratory first speech held in Fearne's stronghold, at Corradino Sports complex in Paola, at the closing of Labour's Party congress. Fearne, the Deputy Prime Minister stayed away from Robert Abela's swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister.  Fearne didn't even take calls from his colleagues.  He sent his driver to collect his belongings from the Health Ministry.  His own loyal supporters and campaign volunteers were left feeling betrayed.

That is what chaos looks like - a sulking absent Deputy Prime Minister who left the country guessing as to who was doing his job at a crucial time when he should have been steering the transition from the disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to his replacement, Robert Abela.

For Robert Abela a hotly contested PN leadership election is a sign of a party "divided down the middle". But a party whose leader resigns in disgrace, its Deputy PM refuses to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Prime Minister and who doesn't turn up for the victory speech of his newly elected leader, cabinet members forced out of the parliamentary group, a deputy party leader kicked out of his position, for Abela is a united party.

Now Abela has the cheek to claim "this is the third PN leader in five years, if you don't count the leaders they've had pulling the strings from behind the scenes". Maybe Labour has really only had one leader since 2008.  Judging by Labour's disturbing and relentless attacks on Magistrate Gabriella Vella and on key court experts, that may well be the case.

"We are the only united movement," Abela declared.  Why then is Neville Gafa, Abela's appointee as OPM customer care coordinator, clamouring for Owen Bonnici's scalp? Why is Neville Gafa insulting John Attard Montalto and Evarist Bartolo? Why is Edward Zammit Lewis constantly attacking Robert Abela? Why is Silvio Schembri throwing in the towel?

"In everything we have done, a PL government puts the people first", Abela announced.  The question is which people?