When Labour sought a fresh mandate in May, it did so under the slogan "Il-ħolma tiegħek, il-proġett tagħna" - Your dream, our project. It was an ambitious promise. It suggested a government committed to improving lives, raising living standards, and delivering a better future.
Nobody imagined the project included sitting in complete darkness for hours on end while temperatures outside reached 43 degrees Celsius.
Nobody thought the dream involved watching food rot inside fridges and freezers, trying to comfort elderly relatives trapped in stifling apartments without fans or air conditioning, or spending sleepless nights because the electricity had disappeared yet again.
Perhaps the slogan should now come with an asterisk.
"Your dream, our project... terms and conditions apply. Electricity not guaranteed."
Social media became an endless stream of frustration as power cuts hit one locality after another these last few days. Parents struggled to care for young children in unbearable heat. Businesses were forced to close. Restaurants counted their losses. Families threw away hundreds of euros worth of spoiled food.
Most worrying of all were the stories involving vulnerable people. Elderly persons suffered in apartments that had become ovens. Those dependent on electrical equipment wondered when power would be back and if it would last. Families desperately tried to find somewhere cool for ageing parents and grandparents.
Is this what Labour means when it says it wants Malta to be "l-aqwa fl-Ewropa" - the best in Europe? Is this what Vision 2050 is all about? It's more like Vision 1900.
What happened this past week was not an inconvenience.
It was a failure of basic public administration.
The government's first instinct was to explain.
Then to justify.
Then to compare Malta with other countries.
Eventually Prime Minister Robert Abela apologised.
The apology was unconditional.
As we all know, electricity is preferable.
The government insists that following the power crisis of 2023 it embarked upon major investment in the electricity distribution grid. Very well.
The question writes itself.
If this was the result after three years of investment, was the investment enough?
The evidence suggests otherwise.
The problem is not that investment took place.
The problem is that it failed to keep pace with reality.
Reality, inconvenient though it may be, is that Malta today is not Malta of 2023.
Nor is it Malta of 2013.
When Labour first entered government 13 years ago, Malta's population stood at around 425,000. Tourist arrivals were approximately 1.58 million annually.
Today the resident population has increased by more than 160,000 people to edge closer to 600,000. Tourist numbers have almost tripled to more than four million.
Every one of those residents switches on lights, uses air conditioners, charges devices and consumes electricity. Every tourist sleeps in accommodation that does exactly the same.
None of this happened overnight.
None of it arrived unexpectedly.
It was government policy.
Labour deliberately chose an economic model built around sustained population growth. In tourism, it targeted numbers, not quality. Whether one agrees with these strategies or not is a separate debate.
Once government chooses such paths, however, it acquires another responsibility.
Infrastructure must grow faster than the population and tourist arrivals.
Not afterwards.
Not when problems emerge.
Before they become crises.
Instead, Malta has experienced increasingly congested roads, mounting sewage problems and an electricity system that buckles immediately when confronted with days of extreme temperatures.
This is what happens when infrastructure is left playing perpetual catch-up to growth.
Neither can climate change be described as a surprise.
For years, scientists and international organisations have warned that southern Europe would experience more frequent and more intense heatwaves.
This was not hidden inside confidential reports.
It was common knowledge.
The electricity system therefore should have been designed not for average summer temperatures but for exceptional ones.
Because exceptional temperatures are no longer exceptional.
They are becoming normal.
The prolonged heatwave exposed just how fragile the system remains.
The government's response that similar problems occur abroad is then unconvincing.
Other countries also experience traffic congestion.
That does not make Maltese traffic acceptable.
Other countries have housing problems.
That does not excuse poor planning in Malta.
Likewise, power failures elsewhere cannot become a convenient defence every time our own infrastructure collapses.
Malta's government is elected to solve Malta's problems.
Not catalogue everyone else's.
Perhaps the most astonishing contribution came from Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, who attempted to direct blame towards the Nationalist administration.
This argument stretches credibility beyond breaking point.
The Nationalist Party has now been out of government for 13 years.
Not 13 weeks.
Not 13 months.
Thirteen years.
Labour has governed through three legislatures - two of which ended early, but that's another story - and has now begun a fourth.
At what point does responsibility finally change hands?
Surely somewhere before the 13th anniversary.
Responsibility cannot be endlessly outsourced to history.
It also cannot be ignored that Dalli herself has occupied the energy portfolio for five-and-a-half years.
Nearly half of Labour's entire period in government.
Sufficient time to identify weaknesses, forecast future demand, and strengthen resilience.
If that did not happen, questions naturally arise.
Perhaps this explains why the Nationalist Party has tabled a motion of no confidence in the minister and is calling for her resignation or removal.
Whether such a motion succeeds politically is another matter.
What is sure is that accountability is becoming an increasingly unfamiliar concept.
Instead we receive apologies.
Promises of compensation.
Announcements of investigations.
All useful, perhaps.
None capable of powering a light bulb.
The Prime Minister appears to believe that apologising closes the matter.
It does not.
This administration has developed an unfortunate habit of believing that communication substitutes governance.
It does not.
Only weeks ago, Abela found himself criticised after remarks suggesting people owned boats, forgetting that many households are struggling to make ends meet, with some families needing more than one income simply to cope with rising costs.
Now citizens who cannot even rely on electricity are expected to accept that an apology settles the account.
It does not.
Government exists to ensure essential services function.
That is its first duty.
Everything else follows afterwards.
One cannot help recalling another memorable governmental suggestion for times when there is no electricity - people should read a book, they were told.
Sound advice.
Except reading becomes rather difficult when the lights go out.
Then again, judging by the duration of some blackouts, residents in certain localities might actually have had enough time to finish the entire Bible before electricity returned.
Humour, however, only disguises the seriousness of what occurred.
There's another thing.
Labour has promised a national wellbeing index.
One wonders what that index would register after a week during which thousands endured unbearable heat, businesses lost income, elderly residents suffered and families questioned whether electricity would remain available from one evening to the next.
If such an index genuinely measures quality of life, it would currently be struggling to remain above ground level.
This week's crisis must become more than another political controversy that disappears with the next news cycle.
It should be a wake-up call.
Malta's population will continue growing.
Tourist numbers will continue increasing.
Heatwaves will become more frequent and more intense.
None of these developments can reasonably be described as unforeseen.
Government therefore has one responsibility above all others: plan ahead.
Not react.
Not apologise.
Not compensate.
Plan.
Then execute.
Because people do not expect miracles from their government.
They simply expect to arrive home after a day's work, switch on the lights, open the fridge and enjoy the comfort of their home.
In 2026, that should not be too much to ask.
Labour asked the country to believe in the promise: "Il-ħolma tiegħek, il-proġett tagħna" - Your dream, our project. Today, many Maltese would settle for something far less ambitious.
They are asking for competence.
They are asking for planning.
They are asking for the lights to stay on.