Dr Lawrence Gonzi calls it a rainbow of colours, but I rather think of it as another political strategy in the PN’s frantic run to win the 6 June MEP elections by hook or by crook, so that they can pat themselves on the back afterwards for how good they think they’re governing this country.

For those who are not blinded by their own naivety, it is very clear that far from the team spirit the first PN billboard seems to imply, most of the PN candidates are saying different things, in different places, to different people, promising things that go diametrically opposite to what the PN here in Malta and the EPP in Strasbourg and Brussels have always propagated.

We have Frank Portelli (who sounds more like an AN candidate to me) saying that Libya should be reprimanded and promise to “stop” illegal immigration to Malta (how he plans to do so is still a bit of a mystery), while Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici says that we shouldn’t blame Libya. We have Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas “four square” behind Dr Joseph Muscat’s arguments about the VAT issue on cars while the government tries its level best not to give these refunds and accuses those clamouring for it as “irresponsible”.

We have the PN, which has traditionally always been very reticent on issues like divorce and even worse on gay issues, fielding a candidate who speaks of gay civil rights and the introduction of divorce. We have a government, which, throughout this last year taxed the self-employed, did absolutely nothing to give the much vaunted “red-carpet treatment” to people who want to invest and, to boot, sent “armies” of civil servants with rulers and inch tapes to perform numerous public theatricals, making these self-employed look like heartless criminals.

So what does the PN do? They take Vince Farrugia, a man I had thought was above petty politics, and use him to get the votes of the many incensed business people who feel so cheated by the PN. Then we have Alan Deidun, a respected environmentalist, who says that we need the EIA of the Ghadira road assessed by experts and those opposed to it, and that the development at Wied il-Ghasel in Mosta should be stopped, while on the other hand the minister in charge pours cold water on the first issue, saying that Deidun “should know better”, and the Prime Minister saying that he cannot act on the latter “because the government respects MEPA’s autonomy” (whatever that might mean!!) and that the “decision has been taken”.

This is not what I call a rainbow of colours complementing each other but a ‘cacophony’ of colours all intent on one singular purpose so eloquently ‘revealed’ by Vince Farrugia – that the PN ‘gets its biggest electoral victory ever’. It’s just plain unbelievable that after taking everyone and his brother for a ride, this party expects to score a “huge victory”. Unbelievable how these people are convinced that throughout this year they have governed the way they promised, so much so that they still deserve not only our vote but also our loyalty.

Unbelievable how, instead of eating humble pie and admitting that they have made a mess of the country and of the PN, these people persist in thinking that we’re all fools who will happily vote PN come what may because we’re afraid of big, bad Joseph.

Be not mistaken and foolish to think that the election in June is just about electing five or six MEPs. Politically, it is far more than that! Every vote given to PN candidates, as well meaning and reliable and friendly as some of these may be, is nothing more then a carte blanche for this government to keep bulldozing everyone and to make a mockery of its own promises before the last election! As hard as it may sound for those who still believe in the PN, this is the truth and nothing but the truth!

Albert Gauci Cunningham

BUGIBBA