Don’t worry: there won’t be any spoilers here.

The most talked-about television series ever, Game of Thrones, came to an end this week after eight long, intriguing, exciting seasons of twists, drama, sabotage, betrayal, back-stabbing, shifts of loyalty, selfishness, abandoning of ideals, sacrifices, family fights, warmongering and cheating.

Except for the visual effects, presence of dragons, ravens and direwolves, and the coming back from the dead, there is so much in common between Game of Thrones and what we experience, here in Malta and elsewhere, in politics.

It is, perhaps, ironic that filming of the first season was partially set in Malta, “completing” the “association” between the series and the local political scene. The real pity is that, since that film-shooting at a time when it was never thought that Game of Thrones would have reached the popularity it eventually did, we lost the Azure Window to nature’s forces.

Politics is very much a Game of Thrones, and this is particularly so in days and weeks close to an election, a time when so much is at stake not only for the contending parties but also for the individuals who put their name on the ballot sheet, whether with a political party or on their own.

We have individuals and parties fighting for power, and there are no holds barred in the struggle for those six “thrones” in Brussels (with the good salaries and perks) from where so much can be done – both positive and negative, given that they can be used for so many interests, which are not always the best for Malta, but this of course depends on one’s perspective.

And, while on the surface parties appear united in the search of the target they set themselves – be it the fourth “throne”, the third one, or simply an attempt to try to break up the duopoly that has existed in these elections ever since they started in 2004 – there is an under-current that it only visible to those who are close to it.

Because, to all outward appearances, parties and candidates representing them are fighting against their political opponents, but the real battles are the internal ones, those that pit candidates from the same party against each other for that coveted “throne”.

Same-party candidates often hold joint activities, sit next to each other in political events and in public always have words of praise for their colleagues, but at the end of the day it is only human that they seek to get more number one preferences than the ones sharing the same colour on the ballot sheet.

The parties do not help much to control the situation, and there are times when their approach is not fair. Some candidates propose themselves; others need to be persuaded for the parties to be satisfied that all pockets of society can identify with at least one of the candidates. But the parties already know who they would like to see elected, and so push them more than others, sometimes to the detriment of the rest.

This creates bad feelings within the internal structures, and direct confrontations are known to have taken place because parties show a certain preference with one candidate, indirectly kicking aside the rest of the contenders.

But, then again, this is politics, we’re told, leaving us with the impression that it is not the people who choose who to sit on the six “thrones”, but the parties.