In a year when electoral predictions worldwide have gone haywire, Chris Fearne has made his own: Labour will win the next election by 40,000 votes.
That would mean an even larger margin than the 2013 election when the Labour Party made history after notching up 55 per cent of the vote and a 35,000-vote margin over the Nationalist Party.
The Health Minister was addressing constituents in Żejtun when he urged them to continue working hard so that Labour would win bigger.
A video clip of Mr Fearne’s short address was uploaded to Facebook on Tuesday and the minister was evidently pumping up his audience, made up of constituents and canvassers.
Displaying no sign of the underdog status the Prime Minister so often likes to muse about, Mr Fearne enthusiastically proclaimed that he did not like losing.
He went on to list the football clubs he supports, which all happen to occupy top spot in their respective leagues.
“Wherever I am, I like coming first. We are in Żejtun and this year Żejtun Corinthians are first; I happen to support Hibs and they are also first; I side with Chelsea and they are first; I support Labour and Labour is also first,” he said in a crescendo that continued with a reference to a recent MaltaToday poll that ranked Mr Fearne as the Cabinet’s top performer. Turning to his constituents, he solicited their support so “when the next election comes we will have another Labour victory with 40,000 votes”.
Mr Fearne told his supporters that the Opposition was confused.
“They criticise everything the government is doing, claim credit for things being done but are so confused that they are now also criticising things started under the previous administration.”
On a more parochial level, he urged supporters to work hard on the district so that the Labour Party could retain the fourth seat it won in the last election.
“To win the fourth seat, every vote counts,” he said.
In the last election the Labour Party made a clean sweep of the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth districts, winning four of the five seats up for grabs in each of them. The fourth seat in the Third, Fourth and Fifth districts was a first.
Mr Fearne contested the election for the first time and was elected on the Fourth district. He also contested the Third district.
He was promoted to Health Minister earlier this year after the Prime Minister removed the portfolio from Konrad Mizzi’s remit in the aftermath of the Panama Papers scandal. Mr Fearne had been health parliamentary secretary since 2014.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com