The Labour Party’s deputy leader for party affairs, Toni Abela summed it up in one sentence. The PL’s victory in the European Parliament elections was “A” victory, but it is not “The Victory” which the party is so dearly yearning for.

It is amply clear, and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi even conceded the point; some PN supporters voted for the PL. He also said that while disappointing, the results were better than the party had expected.

This election was indeed an odd one with many factors at play. The first that has to be acknowledged is that the votes which the PL had seemingly lost for life in the 1998 election and on the EU issue have been recouped. A second fact that is almost as important to the PL is the number of traditional PN voters that crossed over and voted Labour. Thirdly, a good deal of people who used to vote Green have this time gone to the left and voted for Labour. There was also the wildcard that is Norman Lowell. Due to his court cases, he went into self-exile for some time but came back with a vengeance yesterday. Not using science, and merely the naked eye, Mr Lowell’s pigeon holes were quite full – particularly in the southern areas and Birzebbuga in particular.

But back to Labour... the PL was hoping for a 60 per cent majority. It did not quite get there and the party’s estimates are something within the 54-56 per cent margin. This will most likely lead to a 3-3 situation with the PN if the Lisbon Treaty is eventually agreed on and implemented. However, one will have to wait till this afternoon to get an accurate picture of how Malta’s electoral Pandora’s Box will unfold when it comes to inheriting votes on the transfer system.

What is clear is that the PL have gained some votes, some which were their own and some which came from AD or the PN. However, on the other hand, the PL must realise that it still has work to do because the vast majority of votes that were not collected or not cast on the day were in fact PN votes. It still has much to do if it wants to reach out and bring them on board to win the next General Election.

However blinded the Maltese population is by politics, one can at least take heart from the fact that most of the front runners, irrespective of party allegiance – are all valid people with either a proven track record or the enthusiasm to launch into an EP career. Given the truly limited pool of candidates fielded by all for this election, but in particular the main parties, it is heartening to see that by and large, only those of decent substance seem to be heading for a seat in the EP. We wish them well.

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Malta are the champions of European democracy with a turnout of 79-odd per cent. The EP representatives from Malta are cock-a-hoop about it, telling us live from the counting hall that we are champions of European democracy. The political parties followed suit and told us that Maltese should be proud of their democratic credentials. But what if we looked at it from another point of view. What if the people that wanted to send a message – that they are sick and fed up with national elections almost every year, that they do not want to hear more broken promises and are simply not interested at anything the parties have to say – felt they could not do so?

What if we looked at it from the point of view that people are afraid of not voting for various reasons, fear of other parties, fear of retribution, or simply because they got sick and fed up of phone calls asking if they had gone to vote. Are we

champions of democracy... or champions of

polarisation?