Dr Lawrence Gonzi has been in the cockpit as Malta’s new Prime Minister for some time now, but his real first test of leadership had to wait until he presented his government’s first budget. It so happened that when the time came for the test, he was also in charge of the Finance Ministry.
The media and political analysts have been watching Gonzi for some months. So has the Opposition. Dr Gonzi was a relatively unknown quantity in his first months in office, and the Opposition initially adopted a wait-and-see approach, keeping its eyes skinned as Dr Gonzi called the shots.
Lost opportunity
Initially, Dr Gonzi was calling the shots from a winning position and indicated that he was not disposed to shoot from the hip. He had an opportunity to give a “new image” to the PN, particularly by introducing new blood. He fluffed it. He could also have re-written his party’s policies, adapting them to changed circumstances, but he opted for more of the same.
His first two “big” decisions – the first, to propose his predecessor Dr Fenech Adami to the Presidency, and the second to “accept”, without explanation, the resignation of John Dalli as Minister of Finance – raised many an eyebrow and triggered a certain amount of controversy.
If damage there was, it could easily be contained in the initial months, as the PN was riding on the crest of electoral success and was blissfully optimistic that EU accession was bound to mark the turning of the economic tide.
The elation and the hope were frittered away – in part, because of the government’s own inertia and ineptness; in part, because of the utter unpreparedness of the bureaucracy to rise to the occasion. There was no sudden spurt of new investment, no significant outward-looking new initiatives, no new, significant employment openings. The promise of a “New Spring” turned hollow.
The economy faltered between shrinkage and stagnation. The prospect of economic growth became a mirage, as a number of factories and hotels folded up, while others reduced their workforce.
The PN’s political standing took a severe battering at the local council elections last March when close on 50,000 electors, who had cast their first-preference votes in its favour at the general election one year earlier, deserted it
A born optimist and fortified by a five-seat parliamentary majority, Dr Gonzi was in no mood to be dismayed. His belief in the staying power of the PN was sustained by a strong money no object propensity, which was altogether out of tune with Malta’s economic predicament.
The administration revolved round a system of government-by-quango, and the government had no inhibition about committing millions of liri in the Brussels property market, without as much as informing Parliament in advance, and throwing good money after bad, running into more millions of liri, in the port of Brindisi.
Punch-drunk as they were, Dr Gonzi and his merry men did not, or would not, read the writing, writ large, on the wall.
Stern warning
It was the EU, soon after Malta’s formal accession to the Union that brought Dr Gonzi to his senses. A stern public warning from Brussels -- and Dr Gonzi was personally on the spot in a big way.
He was obliged to draw up a hasty Convergence Plan. From that moment on, Dr Gonzi seemed to become older and wiser. His government had to pull the brakes and to endeavour to reverse policy from profligacy to austerity.
Dr Gonzi was well aware of the prevailing public mood. He was even more apprehensive of the public reaction to an austerity regime. He tried, without success, to involve the social partners in a so-called “Social Pact”, seeking thereby to avoid the odium associated with the austerity measures prescribed by the Convergence Programme. That ploy failed.
Having lost that card, Dr Gonzi suddenly found himself in the deep end.
From now on, his plate is going to be pretty full and a good many of the problems tumbling onto his lap will be tricky and multifarious. Although he has much to do, it cannot be said that Dr Gonzi has the best talents at his disposal to do the job
Vital questions
He will need steady hands and a golden touch. Will he opt for the sober approach and be ready to listen and consult public opinion in meaningful terms? Or will he rely on his instincts and decide to go it alone?
Will he be receptive to the aspirations, and will he be supportive, of the interests of civil society? Will he stop demonising the Opposition and its leadership? Or will he opt for the sort of partisanship that has been the main characteristic of the Fenech Adami years, when cohorts of paid journalists played the role of dogs of the propaganda war?
And assuming that he would be inclined to change course and take civil society on board, would he carry the support on the entrenched and powerful (if faceless) inner circle within his own Party?
It will be the government that will call the shots. And Dr Gonzi will be very lonely in the driving seat when many delicate decisions will have to be made. Which explains why Dr Gonzi’s is undergoing his first real test of leadership
Will he play the role of petty politician, and persist in projecting an image akin to a Jack-in-the-Box, or will he opt for a statesmanlike approach?
It is hardly worth pointing out at this juncture that bloody-mindedness on one side breeds bloody-mindedness on the other, and new weapons beget counter-weapons
In the new political environment, Dr Gonzi would be well advised to endorse Disraeli’s dictum to the effect that no government can be really secure without a formidable Opposition. On its part, the Opposition would do well to keep in mind Thomas Jefferson’s challenging question, namely, “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned, from time to time, that the people deserve a spirit of resistance?” (Letter to Col William S. Smith, 13 November 1787).
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