We will leave all speculation regarding the real state of Dr Sant’s health aside, although we will most probably be the only ones to do so.

Apart from the medical angle however, there are certain things we have seen happening which beg for analysis and in-depth thinking.

One thing that springs to attention is the way the Labour Party has reacted to comments on Dr Sant’s recent operation.

Up till 8 January, the party rounded ferociously (and that is too mild a term) on the Nationalist media for daring to comment on a rather tame expression used by Dr Sant in an article or two which appeared when he was still a patient at Mater Dei Hospital. It was, thundered a Labour statement, insensitive to attack a person so soon after an operation.

By then, of course, the nature of Dr Sant’s malady had become a national issue and the subject of comment at all levels.

The very first revelation of what ails Dr Sant brought a tidal wave of reaction, not just from Labour supporters.

And when Daphne Caruana Galizia on 6 January argued that “people have the right to know the precise state of health of the person who is running the country and the other person who stands in line to run it” there was little that was not thrown at her on the Labour media, up to and including Jason Micallef’s extraordinary outburst last Monday.

Then, wonder of wonders, the Labour leader himself decided to hold a press conference on Monday afternoon and came out with a sentence that could well have been scripted by Daphne: “It has become the norm for private citizens in prominent positions to lift the lid on their experiences and I have decided to do the same in order to maintain the level of transparency of the Malta Labour Party.”

So why snarl at those who had asked for transparency when you then decide to do what they asked you to do?

Actually, to be fair, there was no real need for that press conference; there was no real need for Dr Sant to get out of bed or home and brave the January cold just to show he’s ‘coming back’.

Actually, not all would have been in agreement with the need for transparency carried to such extremes. This can be seen by the simple revulsion with which many people greeted the Bondiplus announcement prior to last Monday.

It is this that now worries some observers: the way Labour has been reacting shows it going from one extreme to another: from angry denial to needless revelation.

Up till last month, Labour was a finely tuned machine, all geared up for an expected electoral win. Then, all went haywire. It may well be the shock of Dr Sant’s hospitalisation, in which case, this is a momentary blip and the ship will right itself. Or it could be otherwise.

Again, was it just Lou Bondi’s ‘trickery’ which made Jason Micallef slip from discussing Dr Sant’s health on Monday (rendered somewhat irrelevant by the extraordinary press conference held earlier) to discussing the media in such terms as he did? Or were there other facts of which the public is not so far aware?

And was the extraordinary press conference held at such short notice, with respected medical professionals made to sit in front of a political poster, really, really caused by the simple fact that Lou Bondi chose to discuss that issue that the party thought it urgent to nip in the bud before it grew to something else?

Outside Mao Tse-Tung’s China, every political party is a finely-tuned balance between component parts, with a majority and a minority, with in-built checks and balances. But on the eve of elections, every party must ensure internal stability and cohesiveness, rather than exhibit a shaky coalition that anything (although the sudden hospitalisation of the leader is no simple ‘anything’) can unravel.

These are no normal times and only a cohesive, well-organised, party can hope for success in Malta’s keenly fought elections. It goes for Labour, but it could equally be said of the Nationalist Party as well: shaky coalitions that are stuck together with tape and glue come asunder in normal times, let alone in extraordinary circumstances.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Labour Party’s policy stances, the country needs a strong and united Labour Party to contest the approaching election. The coming days will show us if it is ‘just’ Dr Sant’s health that has come amiss (even as one wishes his full recovery).