“Not that he’s not emotional,” he continued, adding that at times, the Prime Minister surprises him when he sends him messages that show “how much he actually cares, although this doesn’t really come across to the general public”.

“Perhaps there are some people who think that he is cut off from the public,” De Battista said, countering this belief by adding that “this is absolutely not the case.”

He went on to say that a testament to this is “the fact that [Abela] goes out of his office to grab a coffee from Belt Valletta,” and checks up on the people in the offices in his building. “He literally barges in, sits down next to you, and asks what you are up to.”

“I remember one particular episode in the previous electoral campaign, where we were on the fourth floor. He had just finished a political event. In the meantime, Bernard Grech’s political event had just started. We were all watching the Opposition Leader, and Abela came next to us to watch. He started responding to what Grech was saying real-time, with a mug in hand.”

Referring to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, De Battista said that he “barely ever went to the fourth floor because he had qualms about going up there before the electoral campaign finished.”

The fourth floor is famously known as the ‘room where it happens’; the decision-making chamber at the Labour Party headquarters.

“Robert Abela does have emotion and care, but sometimes he doesn’t show it,” De Battista continued.

“He didn’t really show it in the case of Isabelle Bonnici,” Azzopardi replied, referring to the fact that the Prime Minister initially refused to launch a public inquiry into her son’s death.

De Battista disagreed with this statement, saying that “those who were there with him, know how emotional he felt.”

Do you think that Robert Abela lacks emotion in public?