Noel Grima

With the latest opinion polls still showing the Nationalist Party at a distance from the Labour Party, the Prime Minister has come under intense pressure in at least some of his consultation meetings with constituted bodies at which sectors that used to be considered as near the PN have suddenly turned nasty and negative about the PN administration’s record in office.

Although some rare voices have been heard urging Dr Gonzi to postpone calling the election, most of those around the Prime Minister say he will call it a day tomorrow and ask the President to dissolve Parliament and call a general election on 8 March. The election campaign, these argue, is now too far gone to permit a further postponement.

But the constituted bodies that Dr Gonzi is meeting behind closed doors (and some even with the media present) have been pushing and pushing for all they’re worth to gain last minute concessions from a beleaguered premier and his team.

Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely at all, the biggest pressure has been exerted by those bodies that the Nationalist Party has considered its allies in recent years.

The most harassing meeting Dr Gonzi has had, according to all accounts, was the one with the GRTU council on Thursday night, where GRTU president Paul Abela, himself a former PN councillor, did not mince his words and spoke about “broken promises”.

Mr Abela mentioned the GRTU’s support of EU accession but then he also mentioned its scepticism about the figures being issued by the National Statistics Office, which are being contradicted by studies done by Professor Joe Falzon. Except for some big players, he said, most local companies are not getting a satisfactory return on their investments.

In a side swipe at the Labour Party spin on price hikes, Mr Abela claimed that the problems in the economy are coming not from any rounding up done by retailers but from the “huge inefficiencies that still exist in the public sector”, from the arrogance by many in government bodies, from the “unjust way through which the small consumer is today subsidising the big electricity consumer through the way the surcharge is worked out”, from the high bank charges…

Mr Abela’s list ran on and on. He also found time to tell Dr Gonzi that the port reform has not really worked, that the airport is uncompetitive and that the sectors represented by the GRTU were not being consulted before decisions were taken that affect them and their business.

Then Mr Abela stopped speaking and the GRTU delegates began speaking. Some were even more aggressive and negative than others. But they were all speaking from personal experience, explaining clearly how successive government decisions had negatively affected their business.

Dr Gonzi, by all accounts, took it all rather meekly and even admitted that on a couple of issues – the low-cost airlines and the pharmacy of your choice, about both of which he had been rather sceptical – he had been wrong.

He took continual notes as the time allotted for the meeting ran on and on, until it had continued for two hours, well beyond the time it had been intended to last. It is, however, very difficult to see how he and his party can redress the negative aura that he met from the representatives of the business class.

It has been noted that Dr Gonzi is not being accompanied by senior ministers in his meetings with the constituted bodies but by new and young PN candidates. In some cases, this could be for the better, because some of the anger of those he has been meeting would have been far harsher, had the ministers with whom they had crossed swords been present.

Another meeting that took place yesterday was with the General Workers Union.

While the PN statement summarised GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb in just one short paragraph, a GWU statement was far more elaborate and negative.

According to this statement, Mr Zarb told Dr Gonzi that the union was ready to work with the government that respected it. He then proceeded to list the many conflicts the union had had with the government – nursing aides, Sea Malta, Interprint, Cargo Handling. Airmalta, Enemalta and MaltaPost.

He urged the Prime Minister to announce what is to happen to the Dockyard and Enemalta, disagreed with the government stance on public holidays that fall at a weekend and urged the government to give more aid to the manufacturing industry and to keep the health centres open.

Dr Gonzi, this time accompanied by former minister John Dalli, also met a delegation from the Federation of Industry. According to a PN statement, FOI president Martin Galea said Malta was nearing a full employment situation and praised the investments made in the aeronautical, pharmaceutical and IT sectors.