By any standards it must have been Alfred Sant’s best performance in the House to date. Clinical, constructively critical, forward-looking, agenda-setting and comprehensive in his approach he picked his way across various landmines that the PM had deliberately planted in his Budget 08; neither forgetting style nor substance in his excellent presentation.

Sitting opposite the Prime Minister in the House I could hardly help myself from noticing the way Alfred Sant wiped the smile off his face within minutes. This was further confirmed when I saw the strained and pained look on Lawrence Gonzi’s face, when addressing a hurriedly put together set of comments as a reaction to Dr Sant’s speech at the end of the latter’s address to Parliament.

I say so in all honesty. In the days that followed the reading of the Budget 08, I had long lined up home visits in Gzira, Kappara and Msida among other localities.

With one or two exceptions, not a single person mentioned the budget to me. No one offered his reaction. No one asked me for my comments. Neither was I asked whether I happened to share their feelings or not. Within a few hours it suddenly turned into a non-event. Thanks to the patently obvious electioneering that had characterised most of its measures after such a long stretch of painful decisions and sacrifices at the expense of Malta’s middle, lower middle and working class families.

The people were resolute. They simply were determined not to allow Lawrence Gonzi and his power hungry acolytes to get away with political “murder”.

What was even more baffling was the way Dr Gonzi reacted to Dr Sant’s budget speech reply.

One might disagree with someone else in politics. That is what makes the game so interesting and captivating. But to call Dr Sant’s speech void of ideas, a rehash of earlier years’ speeches and a knee jerk reaction to the budget merely goes on to prove how badly out of sync the Nationalist Party happens to be.

I was amazed not only by the various e-mails and SMS messages of congratulations that I received to pass on to the Opposition Leader, but I was even more intrigued to take note of the persons who commented in such a congratulatory manner. One might easily dismiss them as political opportunists but I personally disagree. I think that they were merely reflecting the even more pronounced public sentiment and national mood.

If it was amazing to carry out home visits in the wake of the budget and get hardly any reaction or feedback at all, it was even more surprising that when I visited families in other localities of my constituencies following Alfred Sant’s address, people were far more captivated and intrigued by Dr Sant’s proposals rather than by the budget itself, which was so predictable with the tinsel-town glitter that it came up with – in some cases at the eleventh hour!

Last week I commented to the effect that the political considerations that the PN will be bearing in mind will not only be the bounce that could result from the Budget 08, but also the extent of the bounce and its life span.

Although I am not one to be over optimistic about opinion polls, whichever way they may go, I have heard from good sources that one reason why the PN is so frantic right now, is that their internal polling has shown that in spite of the support of the usual chorus line, the shift towards them on the ground has been marginal or minimal. Whichever word you may wish to choose.

Dr Gonzi gave the game away by the way he reacted to Dr Sant’s speech. He showed that it had seriously dented the feel good factor he had hoped to generate and create artificially. It also showed that his quick fix solution to “improve” our quality of life found itself up against an electorate that is far wiser, more mature and less gullible than his strategists might have led him to believe.

Last week someone told me – correctly or not – that till election eve in 1996, former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and his closest aides genuinely believed that they were heading for a landslide. In public he stated that a photo finish loomed ahead. We all know by now how off mark he was when predicting either scenario.

It is true that at that stage party polling might not have been perfected as much as it has been perfected in recent years, but one should not be surprised if the PM’s over optimism this time round could lead him into a blind corner. Particularly since, rather than boasting of PN governments’ achievements, his gurus are trying to give the impression that the PN reinvented itself the moment Dr Gonzi became Prime Minister!

On one hand he could be inclined to go for an early election in the hope of riding his budget’s wave, while on the other hand he might opt for a post January poll hoping that with various measures coming into effect he could reap stronger benefits.

One point he might be missing is that, normally, ‘feel good’ budgets generate a more positive impact upon their announcement, rather than upon their implementation. Particularly when the euro introduction looms large. And many people, regardless of their views, feel that due to the complacent approach adopted by government vis-a-vis consumers, its impact is likely to be detrimental to government’s electoral prospects.

Without knowing it, Alfred Sant seems to have not only derailed Dr Gonzi’s plans by cornering him into a Catch 22 situation, but all of a sudden an Opposition Leader that only days ago was sniggered at and pasted on You Tube because of a minor blip at Birzebbuga, has suddenly found himself setting the political agenda of the country…from the opposition benches!

Of all the SMS’s I received, the one I enjoyed most was that Alfred Sant looked very statesman like, and that he showed that he meant business.

I am quite sure that this was the majority view.

One might ask me – And what did you think about Dr Gonzi’s reply to the Opposition Leader’s inspiring speech? As a close friend of mine put it, one who is well into anything Italian – soccer, culture, music, food and all their other positive attributes – era un film gia’ visto. No need to add more!

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Leo Brincat is the opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs & IT