I have now been in the political sphere long enough to admire the oratorical skills of the Prime Minister. His credentials in this regard are unquestionable. However for the very first time I gauged a sense of insecurity and inadequacy when he delivered his speech last Wednesday in Parliament as he tried to respond to the Opposition Leader’s clinical reply to the budget presentation earlier on. It was one of Dr Gonzi’s very few let downs; indeed a dismal performance.

It was evident from the very beginning that the Nationalist Party and its acolytes in the media would pick up on the Opposition Leader’s youth and perceived inexperience in the cut-throat arena of domestic politics. Dr Gonzi must have thought that he would be able to ride roughshod over Muscat’s baptism of fire and that he would be strong enough to ward off any challenge from the budding leader and overwhelm him at the first opportunity.

The budget presented the ideal scenario for a quick kill. But it was Dr Gonzi himself who came out bruised from the first direct encounter. Firstly, during the Opposition Leader’s reply to Tonio Fenech’s budget speech, Dr Gonzi’s body language seemed uneasy as Dr Muscat ripped mercilessly into the government’s credibility, shooting down, one by one, all the excuses brought up for the austerity measures projected for next year, from the international economic and financial crises to State subsidies on energy.

To Dr Gonzi it must have been the first warning that he was facing a stiffer challenge than he ever contemplated. Indeed, the government’s first reaction through the media to Dr Muscat’s calculations on, more specifically, the energy tariffs were belated and shorn of any financial and economic credibility. However the worst was still to come in Parliament with Dr Gonzi’s replication of Muscat’s lucid contribution.

Dr Gonzi not only failed to counter the Opposition Leader’s criticism of the budget but he spoke in a way that was completely detached from the budget itself. He was far from focused and was clearly reluctant to back up the budget with sound financial and economic logic. He harped on continuously on the international economic crisis and how it will inevitably affect our open economy. But he was totally out of synch with prevailing economic thought on how to prepare the economy for the rainy days to come.

Indeed they are already with us. What is the current economic scenario? The best indicators of our economic performance and competitiveness are our exports. They have been dwindling dramatically with the loss of millions of euros in the first half of this year due in part to a loss in demand from foreign markets hit by recession or economic slowdown, sparked by the international crises, and in part to our own structural problems, mainly government induced, through high taxation, high productivity costs and over-regulation.

While leading economists, trade unions and business organisations are screaming at the government to oil the wheels of the economy through planned fiscal relaxation and by putting money in people’s pockets to increase their spending power, Dr Gonzi is moving in the opposite direction, creating shocks to consumers and businesses with exorbitant taxation on sectors such as transport and energy on which the taxpayer is heavily reliant.

It is curious why Dr Gonzi is defying all economic logic and going his own way if not to try to address the mess he has made of our public finances while he was still responsible for them. But if he wants to do this at the expense of the economy it is highly unlikely that his measures would stimulate enough growth to mop up enough revenue to bolster State coffers.

Dr Gonzi is spinning in outer space far from the precincts of the budget and the economy. All these factors have now started to weigh on his ability to communicate and to persuade.

Dr Gulia is the Opposition’s main spokesman on the economy

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