One sometimes tends to have the temptation to assume politics in the European Parliament and during European elections are less polarised than inside national parliaments, especially, at a time of local and national elections. The quieter ambience of European election campaigns acts like a smokescreen, but we would be wrong to look at the European Parliament as some sacred political mega structure, like a glorified place where Man’s innate partisan instincts do not play an important part.
There is indeed, and inevitably, a great divide. It may not occur within the traditional setting of a Government-vs-Opposition model, but there are ideological and convenient groupings that work very much like the tectonic plates that shift often but still keep the earth’s land mass intact. It is, after all, in the nature of the born politician to seek compromises that can be safely described as achievements which are then instantly relegated to the status of setbacks by the other side. But which other side? It is this concept that probably gives many people the deceptive impression that in European politics there is only a semblance of polarisation.
Polarisation in its old-fashioned, downbeat aspect it may not be, but it is still there, deep and moulded into a solid base, as we have seen from our own experience as a nation since gaining full membership of the European Union in 2004. There have been – and continue to be – issues where obvious, concerted political attempts were made at casting Malta under a shadow with innuendos and accusations long proven to have been untrue and incorrect. But you still get the awesome grouping scenario where one immediately realises the whole affair is based on pure and simple machinations, blatant political interests and stagnant prejudices.
Yes, the instigation stems from local sources with their own personal ambitions and undeclared party targets, but it still is polarisation that acts as an undercurrent vehicle of political convenience. Happily for Malta, these ideological bandwagons never reached their destinations, but they do show that what is often barefaced and obvious in a national parliament anywhere, in Europe’s highest institution it is almost subliminal in character, but definitely there to be felt and acted upon as the Labour delegation of MEPs has had to contend with and confront so often since the change of Government in 2013.
Before that, Malta’s MEPs always presented themselves as a united front against anything from the European Parliament and its satellites that could have impacted badly on our national interest.
While it is sad to have seen our small contingent of MEPs parting ground as a result of the new Opposition’s evident disinclination to keep local politics out of the vast European arena, it goes to show why and how polarisation actually occurs within the EU’s own corridors and halls, as the groupings take front of stage in a never-ending political plot that, in terms of both character and longevity, has more of Shakespeare than Harold Pinter.
The forthcoming European Parliament elections, scheduled for late May of next year, have to be seen from this “polarisation” perspective, particularly in the face of the populist tsunami that is slowly but surely sweeping Europe at a time when it needs to show a united front against the jingoistic, protectionist attitudes of its traditional ally, Donald Trump’s United States, and other like-minded administrations within and without the European Union itself.
As the current campaigning slowly picks up pace, there still won’t be the polarised atmosphere of the major events and street carnivals that often characterise national elections, particularly in Europe’s southern regions, but let’s not hoodwink ourselves into thinking that it is not all a question of ideological and partisan lore which germinates the very heart of political life even vis-a-vis Europe.
While I have voluntarily chosen to bow out of the political scene and hopefully having fulfilled my six year stint as a conscientious representative, and always having served the interest of my country, there should be no doubt about the need for Malta to make sure the MEPs who eventually get elected to serve in Brussels are those who fully realise the most important burden of responsibility they have to carry to and from the European Parliament – that of safeguarding our national interest, promoting and implementing the European ideal, and making absolutely sure the EP groupings do not in any way undermine all that has been achieved, by us as a nation for our people and the thousands of foreign and EU workers among us, during the past five years. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges the new batch of MEPs serving in the 9th legislature of the European Parliament, is to redress Malta’s undeserved reputational deficit. By no means an easy feat!
Malta has been a small, but shining example to Europe with regard to economic growth, adhesion to EU rules and regulations, and social and financial self-fulfilment. As all the other member states, we do not claim perfection, but we also quietly and statistically lay bare the various accusations that, much too often, have been made against our island-state by envious and politically-charged sources that, no doubt, unnecessarily engender the polarisation process within all the European Union’s political structures.
And with hand on heart I say, with some sadness, that there is no doubt that the PN MEPs have fueled no end the fires of this polarization having taken this unsavory characteristic of Maltese partisan politics to Brussels, shooting at the Labour Government, nonchalant about the shrapnel hitting, hurting and injuring a whole nation.