Malta’s campaign is vividly described by PN secretary general Joe Saliba in the book Election Time – The European Yearbook of Political Campaigning 2003, which was published recently.

By the use of tables and graphs, Mr Saliba explained the tactics behind the campaign style chosen by the PN “in the national interest”. He said the campaigns had similar “strategies, style and tactics” which guaranteed a 54 per cent majority vote for the “Yes” camp and a 51.8 per cent majority vote for the PN in the general election.

He said the referendum was the first appointment with the electorate. He admitted that even though there was a referendum followed by an election, the PN concentrated more on the former, adding that both campaigns, stemming from one another, formed one major campaign spread over a three-month period that covered both events.

In his introduction, Mr Saliba explained that after Malta joined the Council of Europe a year after attaining independence in 1964, and after Malta joined the European Community as an Association Member, deciding about its future in the EU was “the most natural step for Malta”.

He said that while the PN spent the last legislative period (1998-2003) preparing the country for membership (even though the final decision had to be made via the referendum), the MLP proclaimed itself against membership, campaigning for a close relationship, termed “partnership”, with the EU instead.

Mr Saliba explained that, from the outset, the PN knew that if it wanted a “Yes” vote in the referendum, it had to concentrate its efforts on overcoming seven main challenges: negotiating a positive and advantageous package for Malta; implementing the needed reforms without alarming people; shifting public opinion towards a positive approach to the EU; neutralising the MLP and the “No” camp’s negative messages; creating a positive attitude towards change as opposed to status quo; disassociating itself from partisan politics and overcoming political emotions and traditions.

In his article on the Maltese campaign, Mr Saliba gave details about what was done to overcome each of these challenges. He mentioned, among other things, the establishment of the Malta-EU Information Office and the attempts to neutralise the attack on its credibility, and the drawing up of five plans of action towards achieving these objectives.

“Following the implementation of these plans of action, the pre-campaign took form and became focused. This strategy was successful and all surveys conducted from the commencement of the campaign to the referendum itself highlighted a slow but steadily increasing trend in favour of a ‘Yes’ vote,” he said.

In his article, Mr Saliba made a comparative analysis of the slogans used by the PN and the MLP during the three-year pre-referendum campaign, as well as during the actual campaigns leading to the referendum and election. He includes a translation of the Nghidu Iva song, with its “uplifting and captivating melody and lyrics” and explained what the PN did to tackle the boycott and partnership issues.

He insisted that one of the most important aspects of the referendum campaign was that of disassociating the EU issue from partisan politics by appealing to the electorate to “forget our differences”.

Following the referendum results, in which 54 per cent of those who cast their vote said they were in favour of Malta’s EU membership bid, and after MLP leader Alfred Sant failed to acknowledge the official referendum result, the PN decided not to shift its focus.

Instead of focusing on the issues that usually surround a general election campaign, the PN “simply extended the ‘Yes’ campaign”. The strategy, style and tactics used to attain the “Yes” result were strongly sustained through the election campaign, including in the transition of the logos.

He said this strategy helped the PN to win over votes from MLP supporters who had voted in favour of Malta’s EU membership bid since “they had no other means of defending their ‘Yes’ vote.”

In order to reach the objective of winning the election by retaining the maximum possible amount of MLP supporters who voted “Yes”, he said the PN needed to remain focused on the EU membership issue.

The aim was reached: “When analysing the figures of the referendum and general election results, one can safely conclude that between 3,000 and 4,000 MLP supporters who voted ‘Yes’ in the referendum subsequently voted for the PN in the general election,” he said.

The outcome of the referendum and the general election left no doubts about the aspirations of the Maltese people, said Mr Saliba, concluding that following these successes, the next step was for the Nationalist Party to lead Malta into the EU on 1 May, which it did.