Recently, the leaders of the PNPL have gone out of their way to appear reasonable, moderate and caring. The PM even admitted last week that he would have planned reforms in the energy production sector differently in view of the international increase in fuel prices (TMID, 8 February). Of course both the PN and the PL have been embroiled in a period of political blood-letting and are more than keen to show a clean pair of hands.

That apart, such an attitude would be most welcome if it were genuine. In fact it should be the normal way to conduct business. The difficulty with not seeing it as a mere ploy is that neither the PN nor the PL seems to make any attempt to reign in the language and dubious rhetoric which abounds in their media. One just cannot claim the high moral ground and be believed when his party’s print-dogs are allowed, in articles and blogs, to savage the other side in the name of the tribe.

The Third Way lives still

Joseph Muscat has set out his stall. It is not an original one and is a rather late product actually. When Anthony Giddens provided social democracy with what became known as The Third Way which meant grafting some of the principles of the right on to a socialist base, it created Blair’s New Labour which, as we know, worked for a time. However, following the serious defeats that they suffered in the last EU parliamentary elections, Social Democrats all over Europe are now lamenting the fact that they sold out their soul for gain and were punished for it. “Whether at home or in the European Union (EU), social-democratic parties, alongside right-wing forces, have helped to consolidate the neoliberal consensus which is directly responsible for the current economic meltdown” laments socialist Philippe Marliere. Since voters saw no difference between the left and their opponents on the right suggests Marliere, they stuck to what they knew in times of recession.

When I read of the PL creating a Business Forum but then promising to emancipate all on the fringes of society, to my mind it is following the Third Way. Does Tony Blair regret his choice? I doubt it. After all he returned to power an unelectable Labour movement with a thirst for nationalisation and strikes and handouts together with a messianic faith in its perceived mission to recreate society. If things are now sticky, Tony Blair can philosophically recall that he would not be the first to claim apres moi le deluge.

So what’s different?

So if Joseph Muscat is applying an idea whose shelf-life seems to have run out in social-democrat Europe, he may well be utilising something that has worked in societies separated from ours by a time-lag. But like in Europe, the question one needs to ask is where will this lead the PL after possibly gaining power?

The further away that the new PL moves from Old Labour and its troubled history, the nearer it approaches a PN that shifted to the left in order to win power. In that respect, Joseph Muscat is aping Louis Galea. This was already so in the days of Alfred Sant of course, who could only promise that once in power his MLP would do things differently by being more efficient, more honest and more transparent. There was no real ideological difference in that message, neither is there one now. If the PN’s shift to the left worked in its time, maybe the PL’s shift to the right might also work now.

Yes, Joseph Muscat is trying to be all things to all men especially to that significant cohort of disgruntled voters that include those in a state of cohabitation, separation or have a gay/lesbian orientation. But then didn’t the PN’s electoral manifesto, with its hundreds of promises, do precisely that? During the last election, the PN knew very well that huge storms were lying off the coast of Malta and yet no mention was made of sacrifices to be endured.

It is rather late now for the PM to claim, with reference to the utility bills, that “The increase was something that no one could have predicted, and in hindsight I would have timed the reforms differently.” (TMID, 8 February). He knew very well that Enemalta was bankrupt mostly due to its own inherent inefficiencies which included its oil purchasing arrangements at a time of price volatility. But then elections are run on strategies that are hugely divorced from concepts such as honesty, transparency, morality and all the other “-Ys” in our vocabulary.

The Future

Social-democrat Zygmunt Bauman writes:

“In the course of the last decade, social democratic parties have presided over an economic policy consisting of the privatisation of gains and the nationalisation of losses; they have run states preoccupied with deregulation, privatisation and individualisation. There is now next to nothing to distinguish between the left the right, in economic, or any other, policy.”

Is this where progressive policies are taking the PL? If so, will the PNPL tandem still give the electorate a choice?

Dr Josie Muscat is Leader Azzjoni Nazzjonali