Among the priorities the new government has are some delicate negotiations with the Opposition, negotiations that could also be difficult, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told The Malta Independent on Sunday in an interview.

On the one hand, the Labour Party has decided to hold its leadership election on 5 June and, on the other hand, the Constitution states that the House of Representatives must be convened within two months of the Electoral Commission delivering its election result, that is about 11 May.

Consequently, Parliament will have to be convened without Labour having chosen its new leader.

There is then a little known twist to the tale: formally, Alfred Sant, even though he has resigned as leader of the Labour Party, is still the Leader of the Opposition, as the Constitution does not mention an Acting Leader of the Opposition.

Charles Mangion, who is Acting Leader of the Labour Party, is thus not the Acting Leader of the Opposition as well.

The point is, Dr Gonzi emphasized, the government needs to consult the Opposition on a variety of issues before the House is convened. While some issues, such as the appointment of a new Auditor General and even the headship of one or more parliamentary committees could conceivably be postponed till later when Labour would have elected its leader, the appointment of the Speaker must be concluded before the House meets, as this would be the very first business the new House must undertake.

Prime Minister Gonzi told this paper he is still thinking about the best way to conduct this negotiation. As far as is known, this is the first time something like that has happened in Malta’s political history.

Apart from all this, there is a far more serious issue: the issue of pairing. With a majority of just one MP, and considering the huge amount of travel that membership of the EU imposes on ministers apart from other international meetings involving other MPs, unless there is a pairing agreement in force it is difficult to see how Parliament can be managed. Pairing is a complex issue that necessitates a certain amount of goodwill from an Opposition, something that may be lacking in the aftermath of a painful election defeat.

The Prime Minister said: “I understand and accept it is the Labour Party’s democratic right to elect its own leader and I intend to fully respect Labour’s autonomy in doing that. Nor do I intend doing anything that in any way might intrude in this selection. I hope that the discussions will produce some interim solutions to these constitutional issues. I also hope Labour will reciprocate the goodwill.”

He added that he hopes the coming legislature will be one in which the positive side of politics comes through, rather than the confrontational aspect that came to the fore in the last weeks of the election campaign with smears, accusations and the like.

“We must start with ourselves, I must start with myself,” the Prime Minister said, “ but change must come also from the Opposition.”