On the eve of a general election Robert Abela had the brass neck to claim before the gathered crowd that "We have the credibility to deliver what we promise".
We know what they promised. For over a decade now we've been desperately waiting for the promised new St Luke's hospital, a revamped Karin Grech Hospital, a new Gozo hospital, a new mental health hospital. Instead we all know St Luke's is crumbling away, despite the valiant efforts of Labour's security guards to keep Adrian Delia out and stop him reminding the public of the pathetic derelict state it's in.
"We will be solving the problem of the shortage of beds and patients in corridors," Joseph Muscat bluffed in 2015.
Now Labour has come up with more impossible pledges. Labour is promising to spend 1.5 billion on its new health master plan. It includes a Mother and Child hospital that was first promised over a decade ago. It includes an acute psychiatric centre - for the umpteenth time. It will fund long-term rehabilitation using advanced medical robotics - whatever that is. And they're promising a new 400-bed hospital for Gozo - again.
What they've kept quiet is that St Luke's will only reach the target 593 beds by 2060 - a third of a century from now. The new Gozo hospital will only reach its targeted 400 beds that same year. That's quite clever - Robert Abela won't be there to face the music, we hope.
On the eve of the 2017 election, then Labour leader Joseph Muscat promised that work on the mass transport system would commence during the next legislation, only to shelve the idea for good.
On the eve of the 2022 election, Abela's flagship promise was a nationwide underground metro system designed by engineering firm Arup. It was meant to be a three-line 25-station network covering the most populated areas of Malta and was costed at 6.2 billion. There was even a glitzy roadshow which cost taxpayers tens of thousands of euro promising a total overhaul of how people would commute.
In 2026, Abela scaled his grand plans down to a rapid transport system named La Valette line which would link Valletta to the airport. The cost is now just 2.8 billion. But that's no guarantee it will see the light of day. Labour is now describing those plans as a "15-year project". Despite the hype, construction will not start at least before 2031. Abela had to admit that his fictional 25 station underground was just a pre-election gimmick. His excuse for ditching his original plan was that it became unaffordable due to rising global costs.
Yet Abela bragged about his credibility. And a good chunk of the population believed him.
On the eve of the 2022 election Robert Abela promised the nation five key projects - Floriana's St Anne street pedestrianisation, a green roof over Santa Venera's Regional Road, a public garden instead of a car park in Cospicua, a garden and a football pitch instead of Victoria's car park and a large park instead of the Malta Dairy Products factory in Hamrun.
Robert Abela failed to deliver on all five. So where is Labour's credibility?
Since 2017 Labour has been promising it would spend 700 million euro to rebuild all of Malta's and Gozo's roads. Abela repeated that pledge in 2022. Yet nothing can distract us from the regular jolts and bumps of the unavoidable potholes and badly filled-in trenches on our roads. Even key arterial roads in tourist hot spots are riddled with potholes, some right in front of bus stops ensuring that after each downpour passengers are soaked with filthy rain water as the bus they're waiting for approaches.
Robert Abela has been promising to halt developments while appeals are ongoing since his Workers' Day mass meeting of 2023. Three years later we're still waiting. Yet on the eve of the general election that promise has been reincarnated in Labour's manifesto "Int Malta". Abela insists we can believe him, we can trust him. The evidence indicates otherwise. Abela didn't introduce those changes in three long years because he's held to ransom by the construction lobby. That won't change now the election is past. If anything, Abela's obligations will be even bigger.
Robert Abela made new grander pledges this time round. He's promised to transform the White Rocks complex into a major national park with no development on the site. He's pledged to turn Fort Campbell into an ecological park. He's also bluffed that Manoel Island will become a national heritage park. Yet he didn't lift a finger when 20 padel courts were constructed illegally on Manoel island. Abela's Planning Authority simply sanctioned those brazen illegalities.
What are the chances that Abela will deliver on those new grand promises if he didn't manage to complete one of his five projects from 2022? He hasn't even managed to open the Tigne Point walkway and belvedere. It's been closed off with wire fencing for over two years denying the public one of the most beautiful views of Valletta. MIDI won't fix it. And Abela won't stand up to them. MIDI wants another 900,000 euro on top of the 47.3 million euro of taxpayers' cash that Abela gave the company to get back what is ours.
"The Labour party will deliver what it promises", Abela insisted, "we have the credibility, a competent team and the responsibility to deliver all promises". Talk is cheap.
Abela described his manifesto as a "contract" with society. With no hint of irony he declared that "the public knows the worth of the party and that it delivers what it promises". The reality is that Labour let the country down, badly - not once, not twice, but three times. And yet here we go again.