Dr Lawrence Gonzi is rarely seen losing his cool. Even when the opposition press tries to give him a hard time, he replies with a smile, sarcastic at times, and makes it clear that he won’t be led down the path the journalist wants him to go.

Therefore it was extremely surprising last Sunday during a press conference organised by the Nationalist Party that Dr Gonzi replied with vehemence to a question that, in our view, was fair comment.

Dr Gonzi was asked by TMID whether the result was influenced by a growing level of voter apathy and the perception that his government was sitting on a pedestal, stepping down only at election time.

So why did the Prime Minister react in the manner he did?

Labour’s election campaign focused on the people. Dr Sant, party officials and the candidates themselves made it a point to get close to the people, to listen to their problems and so on. All they did was show the people that the Labour Party has a presence in their life.

The Nationalist Party took a more distanced approach to the voting public. It maintained its weekly meetings in various towns and villages but focused its efforts on getting the message through that the party (read government) was reviving the country’s fortunes. It was working to improve the standard of living and, hopefully within the next year or so, be in a position to ease the tax burden on the people.

Dr Gonzi’s reaction to our question may possibly reflect a certain amount of frustration. Frustration because he knows that decisions had to be taken yet the public did not appreciate what the government did. Frustration that people were not seeing the whole picture. Frustration that Labour played the game and won by pushing the right buttons.

Dr Gonzi knows that people do not vote because the deficit is under control but because a 50-metre stretch of road was not properly asphalted. Yet, the party chose to base its campaign on macroeconomic issues. That was the first mistake.

The Labour Party does not have the country to govern so it can focus all its efforts on campaigning and criticising the government, but the government committed another mistake here when it allowed Labour to make full use of the only weapon it had.

It must have been extremely frustrating for Dr Gonzi to have achieved so much in macroeconomic terms only to lose the local council elections to Labour over ‘local’ issues and the surcharge on water and electricity bills – the latter, Dr Gonzi repeatedly insists, not of his or his government’s making.

So was the Prime Minister’s outburst justified? Yes and no. Yes, because the government since 2003 has successfully taken the country through a period of adjustment. EU membership brought with it advantages but it limited the government’s hand in certain areas such as state subsidies. The government had to contend with a high fiscal deficit and ballooning public debt. The government is expected to reach a target deficit of under three per cent this year and a more manageable public debt of 67 per cent by 2008. These are important achievements.

The economy grew by 2.5 per cent in 2005, foreign direct investment increased by Lm100 million in the last quarter of 2005, loss making public entities have been restructured, and investor ratings have been improved. All this has been achieved through hard work and a lot of sacrifice.

These are the facts. But these positive achievements had little impact on voters last Sunday. The PN’s mistake was to take for granted the people’s loyalty and ‘knowledge’ of issues that, ultimately, have little effect on people’s pockets in the short-term. Focusing on these issues alone, it found itself distanced from the human side of politics and paid for it.

Dr Gonzi and his party said they will be analysing the result. Our analysis is: Keep on doing what has to be done... but learn to speak to those who, at the end of the day, have the power to keep you in power or to boot you out.