Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has made it clear.

If the Nationalist Party wins a third consecutive term in office, he will bring new blood into his Cabinet.

Of course, Dr Gonzi cannot make his decisions now. First of all, he must win the election. Secondly, he must see who of the current ministers is re-elected, who will not make it, and the candidates who are elected to form part of his team in Parliament.

It is only then that he will be able to make up his mind.

He may choose to relegate some of the current ministers to the back benches, promoting others from parliamentary secretaries to the post of ministers. He may choose to shift around his people and give them different portfolios to the ones they hold today. He may also opt to reward those who have excelled by leaving them in the position they did so well in. He may also decide to leave some portfolios as they are and change others. He will probably relieve himself of the duties of Finance Minister.

Dr Gonzi has often been accused by the opposition of not reshuffling his Cabinet in a bid to make it more efficient. He has often been accused of defending his ministers even when these were in the news for wrongdoings, alleged or otherwise. He has often been accused of being too soft on ministers who have not lived up to expectations.

If elected to government, Dr Gonzi will have the chance to come up with a different team than the one he has today.

And he has already made it clear that he intends doing so. He has said that he does not guarantee anyone’s place and that “there is room for new blood and new faces”.

The fact that the Nationalist Party, throughout the election campaign so far, has strategically focused all its efforts on promoting Dr Gonzi, while leaving all ministers very much on the side, is evidence of what its intentions are.

Ministers have only made their presence felt on rare occasions when the Prime Minister was visiting shops or during walkabouts. On other occasions, such as dialogue meetings and interviews, ministers were not seen anywhere near Dr Gonzi. Even during last Sunday’s mass meeting, Dr Gonzi had a large group of young people as a backdrop, not the ministers or other candidates as was the practise until recently.

All this is proof that the PN is trying to project an image of change too. Dr Gonzi has been party leader and prime minister for only four years,

during which time the country became a European Union member and, more recently, joined the

eurozone.

The country has made great strides forward, and the government was able to dish out goodies in the last two years thanks to an economic policy that was fruitful. It is now planning to introduce a further revision to the tax bands.

What the Nationalist Party is saying – through the strategy it has adopted in this electoral campaign – is that it is true that some individual ministers have not performed well, but the PN should not be punished because of individual mistakes. The government has scored many more goals than it has committed own-goals, and this should be enough to give Dr Gonzi another chance.

The Prime Minister himself is the first to acknowledge that mistakes have been made, and more than once during this election campaign he has made a public apology for the errors. Again, this is a tactical ploy that is being used by the PN to try to convince the people that the government understands that not all was perfect, but at the same time it deserves a third consecutive term because the country has flourished in the past four years.