The resounding defeat suffered by the Nationalist Party over the past weekend in the local elections that took place practically across one third of the island easily explains why Gonzi’s (rather than Joe Saliba’s) ‘secret’ strategy was not so secret after all.
Joe Saliba might have come up with the faulty and creaky strategy to withdraw Nationalist candidates on the Zejtun and Marsa local council ticket but the fact that Lawrence Gonzi took such rusty thinking on board makes it his all the way.
It will be unfair on Joe Saliba to now shoulder the blame on his own.
Once he succeeded in selling Gonzi and Tonio Borg the idea, then this became their ‘baby’ as much as it was Saliba’s ‘baby.’
Last Thursday Joe Saliba was quoted as having said that “We like to spring surprises.”
Not only did this ‘secret strategy’ fail to work and deliver results, but apart from highlighting the PN’s inherent sense of weakness and strong feeling of insecurity, it also opened a whole can of worms, by unleashing an uproar of criticism of the type and brand that we have never come to associate with the Nationalist Party in recent years, irrespective of whether they happened to be in government or in opposition.
To have people ranging from former general secretary Victor Ragonesi to John Dalli’s likeable, mild-mannered side-kick Frank Zammit all up in arms, speaking the same language was indeed ‘history’ within the annals of the Nationalist Party.
As a political analyst and commentator I have been studying the statements, policy decisions, pronouncements and political body language of the Nationalist Party as it has shaped up over the years, but never have I ever recalled such an instance where they gave vent to so much pent-up frustration.
Rather than building an inclusive party, Gonzi has surrounded himself with a very small inner circle of second-rate advisors who are neither street-wise nor smart enough to read the message of their own polls.
By merely trying to find solace in the fact that the Nationalists won the 2003 elections in spite of having lost the 2002 local elections badly is of little consolation for the PN.
2003 was an exception in the literal sense of the word, with the EU issue having swept right across the island in tsunami fashion, dwarfing and sweeping away any other political topic, subject or issue.
What Gonzi has to own up to is the fact that he is surrounded by a small group of mediocre people.
Some time back I met a former PN activist who asked me whether I had ever bothered to compare and contrast the political acumen and sharpness of such former stalworths as Austin Gatt, RCC and Lou Bondi with today’s Joe Salibas, Angelito Sciberrases and Gordon Pisanis.
While Labour kept its feet on the ground during the recent local election campaign the PN was far more bothered with conducting an intensive smear campaign against Labour’s draft economic document which still needs to be analysed in great depth by the party’s parliamentary group, national executive, district and local committees.
I myself expressed my reservations to the powers that be within the party about substantial chunks of the document barely hours after having given it a first read.
I am sure that delegates will do the same before it becomes official party policy.
Only then can we be criticised justly and faulted.
Once a draft document becomes an official party document.
What I liked about Joe Saliba’s recent interview in another local newspaper was his politically perverted sense of logic when he stated that although the secret strategy of the PN can be attributed to the party strategy group he refused to disclose the reasons behind it. “We cannot state why we did it,” he exclaimed. “The moment we do, it ceases to be a strategy. If I were to tell you the reasons behind the Marsa and Zejtun pull out rival parties will work to counter that strategy.”
We did not have or need to carry such an additional burden.
The strategy was so self-defeating that not even our campaign team’s best strategists could have come up with something so politically embarrassing and unrewarding for the Nationalist Party itself.
It is not true that in the past even the MLP did not allow its candidates to contest in certain localities. The reason why certain candidates were not fielded was that Labour had then been unsuccessful in finding enough candidates to run.
Which was definitely not the case this time round.
Sunday evening must have found Lawrence Gonzi eating humble pie as the realisation sank in that this was his third consecutive defeat in a head on contest with Alfred Sant. Two local elections and the Euro elections!
Had Fenech Adami got off to such a bad start when he took over the PN leadership he would surely have not had so many light years of political success ahead of him.
No wonder that certain elements within the Nationalist Party have been asking themselves whether they made the right choice in picking Gonzi, particularly given that his recipe for consolidating his hold on the party seems to be that of surrounding himself with second rate clones in the hope that they can keep him hermetically sealed from other contenders who are still waiting in the wings for the right moment when to pounce and make their next move.
Last weekend’s local elections showed that Gonzi is stealthily turning himself into a ‘serial’ loser, having lost three elections in a row to Alfred Sant – two local elections and the euro elections – all within one year.
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Leo Brincat is the main opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and IT