Looking back 2025 | Robert Abela: U-turns, balancing acts and hyperbole

The year 2025 tested Robert Abela’s leadership, marked more by abrupt U-turns and frantic balancing acts than by decisive reforms. The outcome left voters dizzy.

Still, despite these problems, the government continued to rely on a buoyant economy that gave Abela the levers to sustain expenditure on subsidies, tax cuts and social assistance. Overall, the prime minister sustained the perception that he remains a steady captain who navigated the pandemic and other international crises successfully.

Planning blues

But Malta’s successful economic model comes with side effects, which in 2025 exposed contradictions that reached a breaking point in planning policy. Abela found himself increasingly caught between public anger over controversial development decisions and the demands of developers seeking favourable concessions.

The tension culminated in a big push back from Labour’s heartlands in the south and southeast, where Labour mayors and residents teamed up with Graffitti and Il-Kollettiv activists to fight against monstrosities approved in village cores and the taking up of agricultural land for development.

Moreover, public backlash against two sweeping reform bills (Bill 143 and Bill 144) granted the Planning Authority and developers unprecedented discretion over local plans, building heights and zoning, while curbing appeals left the prime minister reeling. He also faced internal dissent that eventually forced Abela to pause the reforms.

Crucially, however, the bills remain tabled in parliament and decisions about them appear to have been postponed to next year.

But this modus operandi followed a familiar pattern: Indecent proposals followed by a retreat once pressure peaks, leaving everybody guessing on Abela’s next move.

Manoel Island, MIDI and a public park

The Manoel Island saga epitomised Abela’s style of governance. Earlier in the year, when faced with a petition to have Manoel Island returned to the public, Abela pushed back. He insisted there was a contract in place that could not be torn up and warned that any attempt to reclaim Manoel Island would incur a hefty financial cost to public coffers.

Instead, he hailed the development planned by MIDI plc as being “of the highest quality”, while reiterating the developers’ explanation that 60% of the island would remain open to the public.

But as petitioners gathered over 29,000 signatures and civil society pressure mounted, Abela shifted his tone. He pledged to “meet and listen to everyone” until he declared that “the fight of the petitioners is my fight”.

By September, he committed his government to turning Manoel Island into a national park, even going as far as criticising MIDI for reneging on its contractual obligations.

Faced with protests against the planning bills on budget day, Abela went further, promising another public park at White Rocks and reversing plans hatched during the Muscat-era for the place to be turned into luxury real estate. A third decision was announced last month, when in an interview, Abela said Fort Campbell at Selmun in Mellieħa will also be turned into a national park.

The prime minister deserves credit for showing political skill in sensing public opinion on the matter and performing a U-turn, which should leave the Maltese better off. But this fluttering from one stand to another still begs the question: Is this just a balancing act to make up for the construction onslaught on Maltese towns and villages or is it a political decision made out of conviction?

A clear victory

While discontent on planning has shaken Abela and his administration to the core, the prime minister emerged largely unscathed from the controversy surrounding Bill 125 in the first quarter of the year. Bill 125 restricted public access to magisterial inquiries and introduced police filtration before judicial consideration, among other reforms that were largely welcomed.

Although NGOs, the Opposition and the Chamber of Advocates raised alarm, public outrage never reached the scale seen over planning. Abela eventually got his way.

In 2025, it became clear that on governance, Abela lowered expectations to the point where he no longer operates with a clear yardstick for accountability. Ministerial resignations appear dictated more by the intensity of public pressure than by principle.

Just as 2024 ended with then-Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo’s forced resignation over alleged wrongdoing involving his wife, Abela has resisted mounting pressure to axe Housing Minister Roderick Galdes over property dealings with major developers. This time around, Abela has stood by Galdes despite the case unnerving many within the Labour Party.

The risk of hyperbole

The prime minister flanked by Ian Borg and Clyde Caruana at a post-budget press conference outside Castille (Photo: DOI)

Meanwhile, Abela described Budget 2026 as “one of the most ambitious and socially focused in Malta’s history,” promising peace of mind, “when you start a family, when you raise children, and when you grow older.” In many respects, the claim was justified. But branding it the “best ever” raised expectations no realistic budget could satisfy.

The budget delivered tangible relief—tax cuts, pension increases, higher student grants and expanded social allowances. Yet public sentiment remained muted. A MaltaToday survey on the budget found that 40.5% felt the budget left them in the same position they were before, while 30% felt better off, and 9.1% worse off.

Playing with fire

In 2025, Abela also appears to have embarked on the full rehabilitation of Joseph Muscat. This is most likely a strategy of internal containment. Muscat’s increased visibility—including an interview on ONE TV—may have bought Abela temporary peace with loyalists. But his handling of Neville Gafa showed the risks of this approach.

Gafa’s brief return to the OPM, followed by his removal after backlash over the clearing of flowers from Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memorial, illustrated Abela’s method: Deploy controversial figures until they become liabilities, then retreat.

The pattern repeated itself elsewhere. Keith Schembri’s claim on a podcast that he was “helping Robert” win the next election forced Abela to clarify the nature of their contact. He also had to distance himself from Jason Micallef’s threat to sue Trudy Kerr over criticism linked to the Ta’ Qali gravel fiasco. Once again, Abela was left firefighting dramas generated by Muscat-era actors.

Foreign policy confusion

Abela’s foreign policy in 2025 was marked by sharp contradictions and a balancing act between EU commitments and paying lip service to neutrality. Early in the year, he declared that “Ukraine is not going to win this war” and questioned the utility of sending weapons, yet still backed an €800 billion EU defence-spending plan to “re-arm Europe.” He later changed tune on Ukraine, offering Malta’s full support within the parameters of neutrality.

On the Middle East, he supported Malta’s recognition of Palestine, but only took the step after sustained pressure, and avoided joining Spain or Ireland in sharper criticism of Israel. His response to the drone attack on a Freedom Flotilla vessel near Malta—denying entry, refusing to condemn Israel and insisting on cargo inspections—suggested deference to Israel and the USA.

In March 2025, Robert Abela publicly suggested reforming the “outdated” European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)—the main human rights treaty in Europe—when Malta assumed the presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The proposal was never part of Malta’s official programme. Eventually, Malta attempted no such reform of the convention during its presidency.

From Abela’s warning to Europe that it should not be “allergic to Donald Trump,” to Ian Borg’s nomination of the US president for a Nobel Peace Prize, Malta’s diplomatic posturing muddied the waters at a time when the EU itself started dealing with existential attacks from Trump.

Side effects of the economic model

Apart from the planning quandary, Abela struggled with reforms aimed at addressing the side effects of Malta’s economic model.

Transport policy remained tentative. Metro proposals resurfaced despite Finance Ministry warnings over fiscal risk. This may yet become Abela’s legacy project but opting for a metro allows him to defer difficult decisions on curbing car use.

Labour migration policy was handled more coherently in 2025 with the introduction of 32 new measures, including stricter employer vetting, mandatory local and EU advertising of vacancies, compulsory bank-transfer salaries, and a rebalancing of permit fees to retain experienced workers.

The reforms acknowledged Malta’s need of foreign labour while attempting to curb abuse.

Yet Abela himself lapsed into questionable rhetoric when he attacked an Opposition proposal to entrench environmental rights in the Constitution by invoking the risk of foreigners using the legal instrument to attack aspects of Maltese culture such as fireworks and church bells.

It was a moment that betrayed prejudice rather than leadership.

On social reforms, Abela abandoned his predecessor’s appetite for major liberal initiatives. Even on euthanasia, he appears unwilling to expend political capital while showing little enthusiasm for reopening debates on abortion or advancing the stalled Equality Bill.

Instead, Abela has pivoted to another balancing act—casting Labour as a defender of tradition, hobbies and cultural symbols, appealing to a more conservative electorate in an increasingly cosmopolitan Malta.

This reflects awareness of a global rightward drift, but it also risks alienating those who saw Labour’s modernising mission as a factor that counterbalanced concerns over environmental degradation and corruption.

Election timing

Just before the summer, Abela hinted at an early election should the PN change leader. After the PN elected Alex Borg, speculation grew that 2026 might see an early contest. But recently, Abela was categorical: The election will take place in 2027. Despite the contradictions, Abela remains 10 points ahead of Borg as the most trusted leader to run the country.

Labour’s narrower advantage in voting intention suggests that Abela himself remains an asset for his party. That cushion, however, is not inexhaustible. If Abela intends to serve the full legislature, he will need strategic clarity more than ever. By postponing controversial decisions—especially on planning—he risks dragging his government into another cycle of unrest which could further weaken his grip on the electorate.