Another tiddler has called it a day.

Azzjoni Nazzjonali (AN) has chosen not to continue operating as a political party before it celebrated its third birthday, after realising, one flop after another, that it is impossible to break the duopoly that has been existing since Independence. It follows in the footsteps of other small parties that believed they could make a difference, only to fold up in misery.

And, frankly, I just wonder what keeps Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) going. In more than 20 years they have never managed to surpass a two per cent score in general elections, and yet they keep persisting in the hope that somehow they will make it to Parliament. Maybe they are people who like to flog themselves.

The AN far-right movement was created with much pomp and pomposity at the height of the illegal immigration problem. It thought it could sway the Maltese people in its favour, based only on this particular issue. It failed to understand that, although feelings against illegal immigrants were running at their highest, voters cast their preferences according to topics that are more important.

Now that the illegal immigration situation is under more control, AN has no other reason to exist. If it didn’t make it when hundreds of illegal immigrants were making their way into Malta, it will certainly not make it now that the numbers have fallen considerably.

Perhaps the party should never have been set up in the first place. The enthusiasm with which it was established quickly faded away as it became clear that – despite the fact that, at that moment in time, illegal immigrants were arriving in boatloads every other day – the party was not making any headway. People were rightly disturbed by the immigration phenomenon, but they do not choose their party on the way it tackles the so-called “boat people”.

There is so much else that people need assurances about, and AN, with its limited organisation and amateurism, could not offer such assurances.

Its performance at the general election in 2008 was dismal, and the poor result was repeated a year later in the European Parliament elections. In between times, deputy leader Anglu Xuereb had abandoned ship, while leader Josie Muscat had been persuaded to stay on after he had initially also announced his resignation after the 2008 flop. Maybe it was a decision Dr Muscat later regretted, as immediately he began to slowly distance himself from the party, until the final decision to dissolve it came a few days ago.

A successful doctor and businessman, who will be remembered for standing up, in 1987, on a point of principle to vote against the wishes of the Nationalist Party, whom he represented in Parliament for 21 years, Dr Muscat should have refrained from re-entering politics in the way he did. It took him a while to realise his error, and he probably did stay on longer than he really wanted to, but now he can go back to concentrating all his entrepreneurial skills and energy on the hospitals he administers. It’s there that he’s at his best.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Alternattiva Demokratika is still struggling to make an impact on Maltese politics, in spite of having been around for more than two decades. Its best result remains the near miss at the first EP elections in 2004, at a time when the Maltese experimented with their vote – just as they do in local council elections – because they knew it would not affect the running of the country.

AD has taken part in five general elections, always with miserable results. Their best performance, in fact, remains their first ever participation, when the party was seen to be a novelty and included several candidates who were well known and rather popular as well. In spite of this, the party obtained a meagre 1.69 per cent of the votes. Since then, its share has dwindled in consecutive elections until it slightly rose again in 2008, reaching a still poor 1.31 per cent.

If AD could not make an impact when it had the likes of Wenzu Mintoff, Toni Abela, Peppi Azzopardi, Arnold Cassola and Harry Vassallo, then I believe it will continue to crumble even more the next time around.

And, apart from failing with the bigger names, AD was also unable to take advantage of a beleaguered Nationalist Party – from where it is most likely to obtain votes – at the last election.

Again, if AD did not manage to pick up more votes from the Nationalist camp in 2008 – with the PN having been in power for 21 years apart from 22 months – then I find it hard to imagine that it will make any progress in the years to come.

Its new leader, Michael Briguglio, says that the party is alive and kicking. If by that he means issuing a press release every day – often quite irrelevant – just to make it to the papers, then he may continue to deceive himself. He knows – or should know – that it takes much more than that for a party to say it is active.

Having had many leaders and acting leaders in its short time of existence, such a high turnover of activists and a good number of top people, including their first leader – who left the party for different reasons, shows an organisation that is not consistent and even less credible.

AD projects itself as a third force in the country, saying that it is an alternative to what it says are the old ideas of the two major political parties.

But in its 20 years of existence it has offered little to Maltese politics. The fact that this “third force” has remained so weak and amateurish after two decades, and that it has barely managed to tickle the PN and PL, goes a long way to raising the question as to whether AD has a future to which it can look forward.

AN had the courage to admit that it did not.

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