Increasingly, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil is finding it hard to cobble together a coalition to tackle Joseph Muscat’s Labour in the coming general election.

Dr Busuttil seems to have realized that just relying on the ‘natural’ PN voters (whatever that does mean) will not be sufficient.

So, like Joseph Muscat five years ago, he set about to cobble together a coalition that is wide enough to include as many people as possible and unite them in reaction to the Joseph Muscat and his administration hoping the numbers will add up.

Five years ago, the situation inside the Labour Party or rather the Moviment, which is what Muscat called his coalition, was very different from the one that there is today inside and around the PN.

After 25 years in the wilderness, bar less than two years of a dream, Labour wanted one thing: to get to power. So there was all the incentive to cut down on ideological dispute and work together to get back to power.

In fact, coming to think of it, there were no disputes between people who had been around in Mintoff’s time and people who came in at the last minute, brought in by the Muscat charisma and the promise of victory.

Then, on the notorious fourth floor, deals were reportedly made, promises exchanged, and commitments done. That is all hearsay: but the common opinion is that most commitments have been fulfilled. In fact, we do not recall anyone who said he had been promised this or that and did not get it. It was and is a commitment-based government.

The situation is quite different inside the Nationalist Party. The one thing that makes PN resemble PL in Opposition is the anger at the electoral defeat and the zeal to get back to power.

Otherwise, however, there is a huge difference.

PN in Opposition is splitting into so many different strands and coexistence between them is proving to be rather problematic.

At the beginning, it was all rather smooth. There were those who identified with the Gonzi administration and those who identified with Simon Busuttil, the new leader. Slowly, the old administration was eased out, although this remains a largely unfinished business.

Then there were the splits caused by the bills regarding same-sex partnerships, and the like. The Gonzi PN had voted mostly against divorce and then the Busuttil PN abstained on the same sex partnerships, losing credibility among the gay community. Now, PN has openly practicing gays within it.

But not all are happy in this situation. There have been those, like Edwin Vassallo, who have openly complained there does not seem to be any space for Catholics in politics.

Then along came Salvu Mallia who, on the one hand, professes an openly liberal agenda as regards abortion and euthanasia and on the other hand takes a more confrontational approach versus Joseph Muscat, attracting both consensus and opposition.

That, more or less, encapsulates how the situation is at present. The leader is pushed towards strident opposition against Muscat’s faults but the bickering behind his back continues.

The PN being the PN, such arguments will always persist. As will persist the tenuous relations with the newer parties that have sprouted up. Simon Busuttil is called for quite a hefty dose of diplomacy (once he does not have, nor would want to have the fourth floor) to keep the various sections working together.