Last Sunday’s activity in Zurrieq was the last in the series of public meetings called “New political season”, organised by the Labour Party to “introduce” its new leader Joseph Muscat to all its members and supporters in the different towns and villages.
It has been six months since the former Member of the European Parliament took over the reins of the Labour Party. They have been six months of settling down in a new role, and also six months of transformation of a party that needed a renewal following three consecutive election defeats.
Whether this transformation or renewal has been as complete as Dr Muscat would have liked it to be is a question that only he can answer. Both Labour and neutral supporters are, for example, still questioning why the Labour delegates chose a new figure to lead their party – Dr Muscat – but then selected two deputies from the “old guard”, rather than two new faces to complement their choice of leader.
Some are also questioning why the delegates then also went on to confirm most of the administration officials in their posts when the election was held in August. What was also debatable was Dr Muscat’s decision to stay on as MEP for three months before resigning to take over the reins as Opposition Leader.
Still, the waters have calmed down since then and Labour went on to change parts of the party statute to give a stronger voice to all sectors of society and form an administrative structure which is aimed to forge wider ties with the grassroots of the party as well as with people who are not traditional Labour voters.
These first six months enabled Dr Muscat to find his feet in a new role. He has already made important decisions – the changes to the statute, which included the change of name to Partit Laburista, are only part of the equation.
Most of all, he is trying hard to change the people’s perception of the PL. For too many years, the PL was associated with negative approaches to all that was proposed, be it the European Union membership or entry to the eurozone, or to other smaller issues that found the Labour Party always on the other side of the fence.
In the past six months, Dr Muscat has not shied away from expressing support to government projects, the latest one being the idea to rehabilitate the entrance to Valletta and the building of a Parliament House instead of the old opera house ruins. Such an approach raises the man’s credibility – he would then be listened to more when he voices his opposition to other projects, as he is doing on the Ghadira Road project.
Of course, the bigger tests are still to come. Once the Christmas festivities are over, we will soon embark on yet another campaign which will lead to the election of Malta’s five representatives in the European Parliament.
Labour had won the first ever election for MEPs in 2004, with Dr Muscat himself obtaining the highest number of votes among Labour candidates. The PL will be seeking to obtain the same result this time round too, most of all to confirm its position as well as to boost its morale.
Yet, history has shown us that EP elections and local council elections do not really gauge the people’s support. The PL won all local council elections and the EP election in the last five years, but then went on to lose the most important one, the general election.
And this is where Dr Muscat needs to concentrate. He must lead the party to convince the electorate that the PL is the better alternative. The next general election is more than four years away, but he would do well to start preparing from now.