The more time progresses and the more the Euro elections campaign gains in momentum, the more I am reminded of the well known song Oh, what a circus from the Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita.
I am not against allowing MEP candidates to use a certain degree of flexibility in building up their own profile among the electorate, but when their statements, pronouncements and electoral pledges happen to be diametrically opposed to what their party is actually doing right now, particularly if it happens to be in government, then the situation becomes plain ridiculous.
These public stands seem to show the same sense of commitment and involvement of a one night stand!
What is confusing many voters I know is whether certain candidates are resorting to such a strategy purely for self-promotion, to hog the headlines, to distance themselves from their own party’s sins of omission and commission or, even worse, to try and give their party a new patina of respectability in the hope of enhancing their own and their party’s electoral chances.
Listening to what certain MEP candidates have to say on the government side one tends to get the impression that they have embarked on an assignment to green the Nationalist Party... at least for the next eight weeks or so.
What happens beyond 6 June could prove to be purely incidental or irrelevant.
On the very same day that a local newspaper revealed how a leading contractor continued pushing ahead with his construction works on a number of apartments and garages in St Paul’s Bay in an ODZ while the Malta Environment and Planning Authority – for which the PM is directly responsible – is reported to have kept completely mum, we had complete silence from all of the PN candidates, including those who are trying to put the environment at the top of their personal political agenda.
A couple of days later, they ignored the fact that the PL was the first to come out strongly against the Wied il-Ghasel development and they instead chose to turn their guns on the Mosta local council rather than on the Prime Minister and/or Mepa, who have the executive powers to right such a wrong.
If these candidates really believe that the authorities should revoke the permit for the construction of new apartments in the valley they should be rubbishing the Prime Minister – the same person who might have approached them directly to run on a Nationalist ticket.
But then one should not be surprised about these antics.
We had MEP candidates from one party turning their guns on MEP candidates from another party while another rubbished his party for ostensibly depending on contractors’ money when they have long been reported to have always been the main beneficiaries of such funds.
The same applies to state funding of political parties.
What is the whole point of pressing for such funding – with which I agree wholeheartedly – when your own party leader has been dragging his feet for years on end without showing any real signs of commitment in clinching such a national deal between all political forces on the island.
Rather than addressing the electorate these candidates have been resorting to a megaphone approach addressed at their own party, possibly to attract disillusioned party members who would have otherwise thought seriously of switching or tearing up their vote come next June.
The same symptoms were also evident on the illegal immigration issue, with one minister claiming that we should not pressure Libya because it has its own border problems with the rest of Africa, while a particular MEP candidate has long embarked on a war footing against the Libyan government.
I do not blame a particular Nationalist MP who recently told me that you can call our (i.e. their) party MEP list anything you like, but you must agree that it is definitely colourful.
I recently had occasion to look at the body language of certain Nationalist parliamentarians and delegates when certain MEP candidates tried to hog the headlines during the recent PN general conference. Their expression was a mixture of perplexity, embarrassment and disdain.
I do not blame this sense of confusion – because after all when a Labourite shifts position he or she is soon tagged as having committed a U-turn, while anyone who suddenly decides to follow the Nationalist route, is welcomed with open arms and showered with praise, almost as if he or she had suddenly embarked on the Road to Damascus!
The only good thing about this circus is that it should hopefully end by 6 June rather than running for years on end the way the Evita musical did.
But you can never tell! Who knows? We might be in for more fanciful and amusing antics in the post-June period too.
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www: leobrincat.com
Leo Brincat is the Main Opposition Spokesperson for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change