In 2003, the Nationalist Party was propelled back into government with a sound 13,000-vote majority. It had more than a comfortable five-seat majority in Parliament so much so that, unlike in 1998, it could appoint the Speaker of the House from among its elected representatives. It knew that it could govern with relative ease with one parliamentary seat less than it actually garnered at the polls. And it could also engage in its European and international commitments with little, if any, concern.

Despite Labour’s delusive performance in the last general election, the incoming administration will now be facing a totally different scenario. Besides the political implications of being returned to power by a cliffhanger, where now the difference between the minority and the majority is decipherable by a fistful of votes, the ability to captain legislation through Parliament will be all the more difficult. It is indeed already very complicated without the opposition putting spokes in the wheels.

When I was a Cabinet minister in 1998 there was no pairing agreement. It was indeed a harrowing experience to try to bridge ministerial with parliamentary duties. But it was already extremely difficult to manage parliamentary work in 1997 before former Prime Minister Fenech Adami shot down the pairing agreement to the Labour government’s detriment.

Then relations between Labour and PN were still relatively healthy. But with a one-seat majority it was already a mammoth task for the Labour’s parliamentary group whip to ensure that he had enough MPs present in the House during plenary sessions to resist quorum calls, and, more importantly, to bring all ministers and MPs in the House at voting time.

Now this government will have to face the same parliamentary predicament, if not worse, with the Labour opposition just staring. In 1998 Malta was still not a member of the European Union so the administration was saddled with far less engagements abroad. Indeed this is historically the first time a Maltese government is enjoying a razor-thin majority in Parliament with Malta a full member of the EU.

Potentially the situation can be far more problematic as the Prime Minister himself as well as his ministers have to meet EU parliamentary and council pressures besides a host of other meetings.

It is highly likely that the government will have to disrupt its own parliamentary business in Malta to accommodate its European obligations even with a pairing agreement on.

In this scenario it would be foolish for Labour not to use pairing as a tool. But in my view it has to be a tool for negotiation on matters of extra-parliamentary interest and not as a tool for destructiveness. The electorate has done much of the dirty work for the opposition by handing over to government just one more seat than Labour in a full EU membership scenario. That is already enough stick for the government and the opposition cannot be blamed for it.

The opposition will now need to steer the government into a course of submissiveness on areas that cry for reform and on which there is a general consensus for change. In my view, challenging the government for the Speaker’s seat would be a mission next to impossible as the government cannot be expected to renounce to such a delicate seat of power if, for reasons I previously explained and for which the opposition cannot be blamed, the government will be caught napping in Parliament and will need a casting vote to pass legislation. The opposition cannot afford to be perceived as trying to bring down the government at the first opportunity. We will cut no ice with the electorate out there.

But the electorate knows that public broadcasting needs to be impartial, that party finances have to be transparently regulated, that Mepa needs real reform, that the electoral boundaries cannot be manipulated and that ministers cannot refuse to answer supplementary questions in Parliament on the premise that “the question is not related to the previous one”.

On pairing, the opposition must be with the people for the people.

Dr Gavin Gulia is a Labour MP