I fully understand how a final resolution of the Air Malta crisis would raise tensions that are anything but welcome on the eve of a general election. I understand how a new strategy meant to keep Air Malta flying while setting it out on the path to a better future is difficult toachieve, complex, requires new resources that are not easy to mobilise, and would be time consuming while needing huge efforts.

However, whether an election looms or not, the commitment for Air Malta to be saved at all costs must be declared and visibly implemented as of now, if not yesterday. The company’s workforce deserves to be informed about the situation, so that employees can decide whether they want to participate in the further efforts that need to be carried out, or whether they would prefer to opt out. Uncertainty is not at all good and this applies to all issues, from questions regarding the enterprise’s competitive position to those relating to the morale among company workers and employees.

It’s not just them: but everybody concerned... by which I mean all the people of Malta and Gozo... that need to be convinced of the national interest which makes this approach crucial. We cannot allow Air Malta to roll down the same cul-de-sac into which the Nationalist government intentionally drove the shipyards.

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Financial services

Operators in the financial services system are right to feel disquiet about the future of theirindustry. The latest developments (if one can call them that) in the political scene hardly reflect creditably on the running of the sector. Independently of whether the allegations and insinuations that are being dished out are true or not, the fact that they have been made is surely being noted by outside observers.

Already the MEPs who visited Malta as part of the Panama papers committee did not leave with a very exalted idea about how financial services operate here. And this was hardly because of the partisan and irresponsible accusations that were unfurled before them by PN representatives. It went beyond too the primadonna attitudinising of some individuals among the same MEPs.

The problem was that the transparency and rigour with which the financial services sector is being run was found to be less than impressive.

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French socialists

I’m very sorry for French socialists: their party is in a state of political collapse. They unfailingly showed full solidarity with the Malta Labour Party, even when they disagreed with our policy towards the European Union. Today it is appropriate for Maltese socialists to show them solidarity.

The alliance between all left wing tendencies around a unified socialist party, built so patiently by Francois Mitterrand, now lies shattered. The compromises with neo-liberal forces that had to be made over the years (especially the last five), were too corrosive. Moreover, they failed to stimulate the economic and social upsurge that was expected from them.

Another problem in my view is that the socialist electorate has arrived at the conclusion that the main aim for leading exponents of the French socialist party has become European unity. They ended up giving it a greater importance than they did to the social situation of their own working classes.