The boffins running the political party machines know that, in politics, images can be crucial – which explains why the Nationalist Party is bent on capitalising on its EU

credentials and why the Malta Labour Party is brandishing its policy documents, all calibrated to make good for the government’s shortcomings.

As democracies mature, and education makes its inroads, society begins to take the size of the party machines, and the electorate forms a hard core of floating voters, whose detached views hold the power of swinging the scales one way or the other.

It is this vital hard core that matters most. The party machines will focus on it as a matter of priority, even though the hustings, as well as the media, may provide the stage for an Olympiad of insults and personal recriminations.

The party strategists know that nations, like individuals, through their life, have to ascend a steep slope, flanked by precipices on which they are never permitted to rest. Each day and week is a departure, each month a battle.

Politics is a game from which no one can withdraw with the winnings at any time. Hence the need of political leaders and electors alike to assess the environment, and to test the waters before every decisive move. This being so, politicians on each side of the political divide are desperately anxious to capture as much as possible of the middle ground. It follows from this that an extreme political stance is anathema to the majority of thinking electors. This does not preclude confrontation.

But seasoned observers of the local scene are increasingly coming round to believe that the quest for the middle ground is an imperative because it is the cradle of the floating vote.

Pluralism has made deep inroads in the Maltese milieu, dispelling the thick fog of polarisation of former years. In this climate, it is the rational approach rather than mass euphoria that is the decisive factor.

The political parties have realised this for quite some time, and are charting their course accordingly. This is why the political tug-of-war produces more of the same by way of speeches and strategies – saving, of course, unpredictable situations or mistakes that disturb the political landscape.

Seen from the perspective of Alternattiva Demokratika, the political landscape presents a duopoly – essentially one corporate party with two heads called PN and MLP, each wearing different make-up, but all bearing the same MLPN badge. From this perspective, the citizen is seen as being offered a choice every five years between Bad and Worse.

From the Labour Party perspective, the elector is invited to look at a purposeful party with new policies. It is a party that claims to have been purified by long years in opposition, during which it did much homework, hand in hand with civil society, and had all the time to learn salutary lessons in the process.

From the perspective of the Nationalist Party, the electorate may recall how Malta moved from the fringes of the night to see the light of dawn as it was relieved of the shackles of state control, and subsequently entered the fold of the European Union.

All three perspectives deserve respect in the abstract. That’s what democracy is all about. But the competitive political game is not exclusively contested in the realms of the spirit or in the rarefied air of theory. It has to do with realities, past, present and future – with the threat of misery, the bitterness of social and economic stagnation, the yoke of an unyielding tax burden. It has to do with the future of one’s children and the bread and butter of the present and future generations.

When all is said and done, perspectives are vital. On them, hinges trust in politicians who request and are given a mandate to administer the affairs of every citizen.

It is at this stage that personal considerations are of the essence. It is not enough to support a political party programme. The programme has to be implemented by trustworthy persons, whose record is above reproach, and whose competence is uncontested.

Mature electors owe their first allegiance not to a system or to a doctrine, but to their country and to persons they choose to manage their national affairs.

Politics is about trust and stark reality. The rest is myth.

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