So Tony Zarb was confirmed as GWU Secretary General by 468 votes to Manwel Micallef’s 116.

Mr Zarb thus joins the other winners of past contests on a national scale: Lawrence Gonzi who won last year against John Dalli and Alfred Sant who won in 1992 against Lino Spiteri.

The three, we may say, represent the highest points of Maltese society, although there are others as well. Let’s focus on these three who have all come out winners from the bustle and anxiety of a keenly-fought contest.

As the three sit on their thrones, having vanquished those who wanted to take their place, they may be fools enough to think this is something permanent. On the other hand, they would not be there if they were fools.

In these three particular cases, then, they may be at the top but on a slimmer, thinner, majority. Mr Zarb is not supported by those who supported Manwel Micallef. Lawrence Gonzi is not supported by those who supported John Dalli. And Alfred Sant won only when both he and Lino Spiteri acted as though the past was in the past. As soon as things became clearer, Dr Sant started to lose.

So the three top representatives of the Maltese people are in a way like those Russian dolls, the babushkas, which contain an infinite number of smaller versions of the big doll inside. They may think they are the doll on the outside, when in reality they are the second or third doll inside. The winner may think, or be led to think, he takes all, but all he has is a small majority which may be easily eaten into.

Seeing these three (and the other) people at the top, one may easily be led to think that since these people have been there for yonks, nothing has changed, and nothing will change.

In reality, however, Maltese society has changed, and is changing, rapidly. Like glaciers on mountains which remain frozen for thousands of years but then start moving inexorably, so too Maltese society is moving under our own feet just as we speak.

When union president Salvu Sammut made that very anti-illegal immigrants speech on Wednesday he was of course completely out of order and his speech was offensive not just to Harry Vassallo who left the hall in protest, but to most civil-minded Maltese people as well. But he was not saying anything that is not being said in so many households, on so many buses, and in so many hearts – even those who outwardly speak and write differently.

This paper and its sister Sunday paper have long been warning that the influx of illegal immigrants has now reached a crisis level, that nothing concrete is being done, except words, and that we will not get any help from anyone, not from the EU, certainly not from Libya from where these immigrants are coming.

There is a widespread anger among the people now, as shown by the small crowd in Valletta on Monday when it was faced by those who were foolhardy enough to try and provoke the crowd (this is different from holding different opinions, as is anyone’s right) when it turned on the small group headed by Fr Mark Montebello and would have used violence on them had the police not intervened. The police should have moved, in line with established practice elsewhere, the counter-protesters elsewhere before the crowd arrived.

This, then, is one huge undercurrent within our population.

Another huge undercurrent, which is possibly not shared by the GWU member base as they seem to share Mr Sammut’s anti-immigrant view and anger, is the social current of people wanting to live a very different life from that allowed by the institutions – notably the church – which has been established in Malta for centuries. Today’s young people, those who were the deciding factor in Malta joining the EU, want to switch to a European lifestyle but find that tradition and the provincial nature of a small country the size of a small town somewhere else, does not allow them to do so.

These are the two main undercurrents within Maltese society. They are not represented by the three men at the top, nor by the established parties, or trade unions, or institutions.

As Mr Zarb, Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant stand at the top of the pile, thinking they own it all, they could fool themselves into thinking they have taken perpetual lease of the country and turn the whole nation into a game of musical chairs as long as they remain on top. But, as said, had they been fools, they would not have been there in the first place.