It could have cost the Nationalist Party the election. It has certainly cost Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando a lot in political terms. Now, less than four months after former Opposition Leader Alfred Sant broke the story which characterised the last week of the election campaign, there will be no open-air disco at Mistra after all.

Last Thursday, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority board revoked an outline permit for the controversial project. At the start of the session, new Mepa chairman Austin Walker informed the board members that a letter had been sent by the applicant’s lawyer in which he said that he was no longer interested in pursuing the matter.

There have been many twists and turns since that fateful Saturday – exactly a week before the people went to vote – when the story erupted. In those eventful days, we had statements and counter-statements by the people involved, a showdown at PBS when Dr Pullicino Orlando turned up as a journalist to try to put questions to Dr Sant and requests for the police to investigate.

The people voted, the Nationalists were re-elected for the third time, Dr Pullicino Orlando obtained his best result ever by being returned from two electoral districts (was it a sympathy vote?), but the matter did not subside. Calls for the Nationalist MP to resign his parliamentary seat continued, in particular from the Labour quarters, with the Labour media holding on to the story for weeks on end.

The day the new Labour leadership trio was formed, the police issued a statement saying that legal steps are being taken against three people in connection with the case. Dr Pullicino Orlando was not one of them.

Is it a victory for him? He has always insisted that he has done nothing against the law and that he had nothing to hide, offering his full cooperation to the police. The fact that the police have not pressed any charges against him indicates that he has been believed.

But, is it really a victory for him?

Dr Pullicino Orlando was earmarked as one of the new generation of politicians, one in whom Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi would have placed his trust if elected to power in a bid to bring in fresh faces and ideas into the Cabinet.

The Mistra saga ended all hopes that Dr Pullicino Orlando would have earned the place of a parliamentary secretary, much less of a minister. With the controversy still boiling at the time Dr Gonzi announced his Cabinet, it would have been a wrong political move to give Dr Pullicino Orlando a portfolio. It probably still is.

Therefore, in spite of his personal success at the election, Dr Pullicino Orlando was not given a place on the Cabinet. He also lost his place as leader of the parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe and, although such delegations are formed after each election, the Mistra saga must have had its part in his demotion.

Since the election, he remained one of the most sought-after politicians, particularly in the pro-Labour media, and each time he has had to defend himself from accusations, and sometimes he has resorted to filing libel cases too.

Calls for his resignation have continued relentlessly. The Nationalist Party has tried to avoid the subject completely, and Dr Gonzi has not answered solicitations by the newly-elected MLP leader Joseph Muscat to comment about the issue. It is probably a confirmation that the PN has been embarrassed by the whole situation.

Now that the matter has been put to rest – and that the development will not take place – Mistra will remain as one of the few pristine areas on our islands. The case will be remembered as having been the one that nearly gave the MLP a victory at the election.

As a citizen, Dr Pullicino Orlando will not suffer any consequences of all that happened. But as a politician, he has paid a high price.