Robert Abela and Bernard Grech’s workers’ day speeches

Both party leaders launched electoral campaign on May 1

Both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition launched their respective party’s electoral campaign with a landmark May Day speech.

Several readers have written to Times of Malta listing various claims made by both party leaders throughout their speeches. We sifted through both speeches to sort out fact from fiction.

RoBeRt ABelA

Claim: Roberta Metsola called Lawrence Gonzi “my prime minister”.

Without referring to Metsola by name, Abela told the crowd “we heard her – you know who – just a few days ago say ‘this is my prime minister’, about he who the Maltese people voted out with all its might”.

Abela is referring to a clip that made the rounds in recent days of EP President (and PN MEP) Roberta Metsola introducing former PM Lawrence Gonzi as “my prime minister” to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

But Abela failed to mention the context in which Metsola’s comment was made.

Gonzi was attending a ceremony at the EP to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the EU’s enlargement. Aside from Gonzi, the then-prime ministers of the other nine EU countries that joined the EU in 2004 also attended the ceremony.

The full video of the interaction shows all the former prime ministers queuing to greet and exchange pleasantries with von der Leyen before the ceremony started. When it comes to Gonzi’s turn, Metsola leans forward and says, “this is my prime minister”.

Although it is true that Metsola referred to Gonzi as “my prime minister”, the context of the encounter makes it clear that she meant that he was Malta’s prime minister at the time of the EU’s 2004 enlargement, not her current prime minister.

Verdict: Misleading.

Claim: PN MEPs are trying to block Malta from getting EU funding.

In his speech, Abela argued that PN MEPs “have tried, and are still trying, to deny Malta EU funding”.

It is likely that Abela is referring to one of the thorniest discussions taking place across the EU, namely that known as rule of law conditionality. In simple terms, this means that countries which are deemed not to respect the rule of law are sanctioned or blocked from receiving EU funding.

All 27 EU member states had signed up to a broad agreement on the issue back in late 2020 but, as the Jacques Delors Institute notes, the agreement used “deliberately ambiguous” terms to get all countries to sign up.

All six of Malta’s MEPs, including PL’s three representatives, had voted in favour of a resolution on the issue when it came to be voted on in the EP in March 2021.

Things are a little tricker now that it’s time to fill in the gaps and agree on how and why the EU can block or suspend EU funding, with the issue even finding its way to the European Court of Justice.

Some PL MEPs have argued that the EP risks overstepping its role by not adopting a transparent and independent methodology by which rule of law breaches are assessed, instead giving too much weight to political manoeuvring.

Last October, PN MEP David Casa wrote to EC President Ursula von der Leyen urging her to use the conditionality mechanism in the wake of benefits racket.

“Malta spent far more than expected on social funds

In reply, the PL argued, as it had already done previously, that PN MEPs are deliberately tarnishing Malta’s name, to stop Malta from receiving EU funding.

Verdict: Misleading. While it’s true that Casa called on the EU to use its conditionality mechanism, Maltese MEPs from both parties supported the mechanism’s introduction in principle.

Claim: Malta used up 100% of its EU funding

Abela has made this claim previously, and EU data suggests that he is correct.

The EU’s funding is granted in seven-year blocs, although the use of these funds often spills over beyond the seven years. Malta was awarded some €1.2bn in structural and investment funds for the 2014-2020 period and had spent all of it by 2023.

This doesn’t mean that Malta’s spending went entirely to plan. While it had planned to spend some €196m in agricultural funds, it only ended up using a third of that (€131.5m). It also spent less than anticipated on maritime funds (€21m, rather than the planned €29m).

Nevertheless, Malta made up for this by spending far more than expected on social funds (€414m, rather than €279m) and on infrastructural development (€486m instead of €464m).

Malta is one of seven EU countries to successfully hoover up its entire share of EU funding throughout this period. Nonetheless, the majority of countries used up over 90% of their funds, with only few outliers spending far less than what they had initially planned.

Verdict: True, but Malta spent less than planned in some sectors and more than planned in others.

BeRnARd GRech

Claim: Robert Abela also attacked the magistrate behind the Jean Paul Sofia inquiry.

Referring to Abela’s recent criticism of the magistrate behind the Vitals magisterial inquiry, Grech argued that Abela had previously criticised a magistrate, with his comments reminiscent of those he made at the time of the inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia.

This is true. In March 2023, Abela had described the delay into the Sofia magisterial inquiry, led by magistrate Marse Ann Farrugia, as “unacceptable”, prompting condemnation from the PN and the law students’ association.

Some months later, in July of the same year, Abela wrote to the chief justice urging a speedy conclusion to the inquiry and saying that “more sensitivity needs to be shown in cases like these”.

Abela’s comments on Gabriella Vella, the magistrate leading the Vitals inquiry, are broadly similar.

In January, Abela complained about the “exaggerated delays” into the inquiry, saying that it had been pending for almost four-and-a-half years.

“Wouldn’t it raise my doubts if the inquiry were to be released between now and the eve of the MEP elections?” he had said at the time.

Now that this has come to pass, the prime minister has doubled down on his criticism, saying that the timing of the inquiry’s conclusion “was a message”, without presenting any evidence to support this claim.

A previous Times of Malta fact-check found that it is far from unusual for magisterial inquiries to drag on for years. One out of every five pending magisterial inquiries was opened more than four years ago.

It also found that Magistrate Gabriella Vella completed 41

inquiries throughout 2021, more than most of her fellow magistrates.

Verdict: True.

Claim: €400m were stolen through the hospitals deal

The €400m figure quickly became a byword for the scale of the fraudulent hospitals deal, although it was always slightly unclear how this figure was calculated. Grech has frequently used this figure when speaking about the deal and did so once again during his workers’ day speech.

A previous Times of Malta factcheck delved into this, finding that the exact scale of the money lost remains unknown, with the true costs of the project beyond the beginning of 2022 still not publicly available.

By early 2022, the deal had cost the taxpayer €456m in total, including just over €188m in workers’ salaries.

Updating these figures to early 2023, when the deal was eventually scrapped by courts, and excluding workers’ salaries from the equation, brings the figure closer to €350m, not too far from the oft-touted €400m.

But it’s worth bearing in mind that the €350m includes money that went towards keeping the hospitals running, maintaining equipment and so forth. To date, how much of this money was spent legitimately and how much was stolen is anybody’s guess.

Verdict: Partly false. The true scale of the fraud remains unknown to date. The cost of the hospitals deal, excluding salaries, is likely to have been somewhere in the region of

€350m. But this almost certainly also includes legitimate costs that went towards keeping the hospitals running.

Claim: Robert Abela says that life got cheaper.

This claim has been frequently repeated in recent weeks, often attributed to either Abela or Economy Minister Silvio Schembri.

A Net News report last month misquoted Schembri saying that prices have got cheaper, going on to show footage of him saying that inflation (not prices) had dropped by 1.1% from January to February.

“How much of this money was stolen is anybody’s guess

This is an important distinction – a drop in inflation does not mean that prices have gotten cheaper. It simply means that the rate at which prices are increasing has slowed down.

Likewise, Abela has frequently commented on Malta’s inflation being on the decrease, but there is no evidence to suggest that he has said that prices have gotten cheaper.

NSO data shows that inflation in Malta, like in the rest of Europe, is on the decrease, although food inflation is generally dipping at a slower pace in Malta.

Verdict: False.