One thing is certain. The coming general election will be decisive for Alfred Sant. This may very well be his last month as leader of the Malta Labour Party after 16 long years at the helm, or he may go on to win the election meaning that he will carry on for practically another decade. He surely must be taking this election very seriously. You can’t blame him; his future is at stake.
Alfred Sant has now become part and parcel of Malta’s political furniture. My generation has always remembered Dr Sant at the helm of the Labour Party. We were still very young when Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was leader of the MLP and Prime Minister, and not yet born when Dom Mintoff was Prime Minister. Sixteen years at the helm of a party is a very long time and it must be very frustrating to have spent only 22 months in government. Dr Sant has to win this general election if he wants to retain his post. Another defeat at the polls will automatically mean the end of his political career.
Floating voters, and most of the undecided voters including disgruntled Labourites, have one thing in common; they all think that Dr Sant is not fit to be Prime Minister. Successive opinion polls and surveys carried out by independent newspapers have confirmed, time and again, that the huge majority of those questioned have little or no faith in Alfred Sant as Prime Minister. For floating voters and disgruntled Labourites the general election is the last chance to get rid of Alfred Sant. Whether they will take this golden opportunity remains to be seen; only the results of 8 March will tell. All those who think that Dr Sant will not make a good Prime Minister know that should Sant make it back to Castile after an absence of 12 years, they will have to put up with him as the man will be around for years to come. Alfred Sant has contested three successive general elections as leader of the Labour Party, lost two and won one; should he fail yet again this time round there will be no fifth chance for Dr Sant.
The question is whether Dr Sant stands a good chance of being elected Prime Minister and the answer is a resounding “yes by default”. If a sizeable portion of the electorate does not vote, or votes for one of the small parties then Alfred Sant stands a very good chance of being sworn in as Prime Minister on 10 March. There is a good chance of Alfred Sant becoming Malta’s Prime Minister by default, a very good chance.
Surely he does not deserve to make it back to Castile. Politically he is inferior to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi as he was to then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami. Time has proved that Alfred Sant took many wrong decisions in government and in Opposition. He is the man who vociferously opposed Malta’s EU membership for more than a decade. He is the man who opposed Malta’s euro adoption; he is the man who opposed progress every inch of the way. Alfred Sant has given one wrong advice after the other and he insists in doing so up to the present day. He has now pledged to once again re-negotiate certain sectors with the EU when everyone had safely assumed that EU membership was case closed. Alfred Sant insists on his mistakes and yet expects us to trust him with our future. Dr Sant is undoubtedly a decent man, an accomplished writer and playwright, a man of letters; but that does not make him fit to be Prime Minister.
This may be Alfred Sant’s last month in politics or you may decide to keep him in for at least another 10 years. On 8 March Alfred Sant will either go on to decide your future or you may decide that the man is to seek greener pastures. The choice is entirely yours.