“It is our principles of social justice that spur us to set up schemes like the tax rebate scheme – a scheme through which, from tomorrow, we will be investing €26 million in you, the people,” Robert Abela announced at his Sunday Party event.

His audience cheered. One screeched, “Ejja Robert” (Come on, Robert).

“I hadn’t even finished my speech when they (the PN) came out against (the scheme). That is the main difference between those who believe in a society that invests in its people and those who believe we shouldn’t help the people,” he added.

This was Abela’s message. We give you money, and the others (the PN) want to take it away. How subtle. How deep. What a statesman.

This is the leader whose party called a press conference to call the Opposition Leader “a cheap politician who knows he is becoming irrelevant”.

It is difficult to think of something cheaper than sending out cheques to over 250,000 citizens, paid for with borrowed money that those same citizens and their children will have to pay back with interest.

And to claim in the accompanying letter that the tax refund is a government “gesture of appreciation for your contribution towards our country, during this period dedicated to workers”.

So let’s get this right. A Labour government taxes the people more than it should so it can then give some of the people their own money back while claiming to be making a “gesture of appreciation” – and expects to be thanked through those people’s votes.

Labour has just taken out an additional €26 million loan in our name to buy back political capital. And Robert Abela wants everybody to think he’s “helping the people”. Instead, he’s cheating the people – big time.

To maintain power, Abela keeps burdening the nation with more and more debt. As interest rates continue to rise, the money required to service those debts rises exponentially.

Abela increased the national debt by €3.3 billion in just three years. That’s more than one-third of all national debt which now stands at €9 billion. That is staggering.

Abela is abusively borrowing more millions to try and dampen the rising tide of popular fury. Abela’s tactics are getting increasingly frantic and desperate.

The letter accompanying those cheques sent to 250,000 citizens is blatant Labour propaganda. “Indeed, we supported families and businesses at all times – this is what distinguishes our country from the rest”. Amazing.

Our country is better than all other countries – thanks to Labour. “For the sixth consecutive time, enclosed you shall find another cheque”.

Except that Labour’s staggering incompetence couldn’t even get those cheques right. In a hilariously embarrassing flop, they sent out the same cheques to the same citizens twice over. 1,000 people received two tax refund cheques, not one.

In their mad rush to issue the cheques by Monday, as Abela announced in his Labour Party event, they printed duplicates and posted those out too. The Tax Commissioner was compelled to make a statement announcing that those individuals will be contacted and instructed on how to send those “extra cheques” back.

To stop those people cashing their cheques the banks were ordered to stop payment.

ADPD’s Sandra Gauci, in a fantastic video, tore Abela’s cheques to shreds. She exposed how people who haven’t even lived in Malta for over two years were receiving not one but three separate cheques. An Italian man who left Malta two years ago received two cheques – one for €100 and one for €125. On the other hand, Gauci, who lives and works in Malta received only one cheque for €60.

She raised extremely valid questions. Why are people who aren’t residing or working in Malta being handed out our money? Why have some people been sent two cheques while others have received nothing? What formula is being used to determine how much each person gets? Who decides which citizens get nothing? Why has Labour messed even this up?

The answer is simple. This is no tax refund. This is another Labour cynical and desperate ploy to mollify the people’s rising anger at Labour’s corruption and incompetence. It’s a move aimed to pacify the rage that commuters feel as they wait in traffic at the delayed airport roads project. The project has been going on for years. It started in 2021. It was meant to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022. Then it was meant to be completed last month.

A thousand diversions later, even Alfred Sant is livid. He called the signage of the project “primitive” and “dangerous”.

You’d expect government to insist that works on the project continue round the clock. At least the project should have finished on time. The havoc caused would have been avoided.

Simultaneously Infrastructure Malta caused more chaos in the north when it closed the road from Salini. The tailback of traffic reached all the way to Xemxija. Despite the utter disaster, no traffic wardens or traffic police were on site to manage the situation.

Those who’d travelled from Gozo had already faced the Ghadira road project. That project looks nowhere near finished – and summer is a mere five weeks away. But Infrastructure Malta insists it will be finished by June.

Infrastructure Malta decided to reduce sections of that road to a single lane. The Gozo Tourism Association and the Gozo Business Chamber both issued statements raising their concerns over the reduction in lanes.

Instead of addressing the justified concerns of those associations, Infrastructure Malta, packed solid with political appointees, went on a vicious attack calling the criticism “baseless and irresponsible statements against the project”.

Faced with the daily disruption, impossible delays and the severe degradation of their quality of life, the people can only pray – “Lord, give me strength”.

But Robert Abela has answered that prayer: “As a government, we remain committed to…giving workers strength by….implementing more measures that increase the standard of living of our families”.