Someone must have told Robert Abela he needs to avoid improvising on the campaign trail. Beyond the stump speech about how proud he is, and how optimistic he is about his future, frozen in the drunk aftermath of being chosen to deliver the little boy’s sermon before Christmas mass, he’s been putting his foot in it to the consternation of his staffers.
Friday night he adlibbed about his trip to Brussels to meet other EU leaders to talk about Ukraine. Even to the average follower of the Labour Party, Robert Abela sounded crassly incapable of thinking and speaking about what matters here: the suffering of the victims of Russia’s aggression.
At his event yesterday Robert Abela was more controlled. Here he is answering questions in a ritual loosely described as an “interview”. Technically it’s not really an interview if you get the questions you’re going to be asked beforehand. That’s not quite enough for Robert Abela. He needs the answers beforehand too.
Contrast him with his rival for the attention of the Labour Party support base who eclipsed him yesterday with his “spontaneous” walkabout in Labour’s heartland, south of Grand Harbour. Joseph Muscat needs no notes. His message is not in the words he speaks. He may as well talk about the weather, and mostly he does. Joseph Muscat’s message is in his presence. “I’m here,” is all he needs to say, and Robert Abela bows his head to find temporary shelter in the script someone else wrote for him.