No matter how much and how hard Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his spin doctors might have tried to wax lyrical about the diversity of views within the PN during last weekend’s party general council, it was evident from the moment that the Council kicked off that the Nationalist Party would like to see the divorce issue done away with as quickly and as fast as possible

This in order to be able to move on to pastures new, in the hope of regaining their lost ground, even though as I once had occasion to mention within a completely different context – credibility like virginity cannot be regained, once lost.

All Dr Gonzi’s talk of the PN representing ‘a rainbow of ideas’ sounded as fake as a Judy Garland impersonator trying unsuccessfully to revive her moment of glory – the Over the Rainbow song from of all musicals The Wizard of Oz.

Although I have nothing but praise for hybrid cars, in politics hybrids tend to leave a jaded palate. With this in mind, Dr Gonzi’s attempts to turn the PN into a hybrid party of conservative and liberal ideas now reminds me of a quip that an Israeli guru had passed when comparing hybrids to electric vehicles.

He had said that tackling a hybrid as compared to an electric car, is as tricky as trying to make love to a mermaid as compared to a fully-fledged woman.

Given that on the same day that Dr Gonzi addressed the conference there were two contrasting lead stories in a leading local newspaper, primarily that: Eddie Fenech Adami urged the PN to postpone the divorce vote till after the election while another story told us all about the PN drive to attract liberal candidates; judging by Dr Gonzi’s speech it is evident that he must have pacified neither faction. The likeliest solution will be for him to vote No to try and please EFA’s fundamentalist streak without in any way offering any new or fresh agenda or even hope to those aspiring to see the PN welcoming true liberals back to the fold. I am convinced more than ever that the PN rank and file are deeply out of sync with the mainstream voters, since judging by their comments and phone ins, they still consider it essential for their party to take care of its traditional grassroots – no matter how hard certain administration officials might be striving to keep the PN relevant and hopefully avoid coming a cropper at the polls.

For my sins, during the past weekend I went over carefully the speeches delivered by Nationalist delegates during their recent Council.

Forgetting for a moment that it was no one but the Prime Minister himself who had only recently claimed that our society must fit in within our values, this time round we were told that values had to be adapted to present day realities rather than coming across as detached from them.

Even Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg who is known to belong to the confessional wing of the Nationalist Party was reported to have said that although the PN is Christian Democratic it does not mean that it depends on the Church, only to add that the PN remains a secular party (partit lajk) adding that they will never opt to remove the Crucifix from our school classrooms. As if this was ever an issue in the Maltese islands.

While pitching for a healing process nationwide, it was evident that the PN is urgently in search of an internal healing process, with the PM himself still being at least publicly, undecided as to how he will vote during the second reading of the Divorce Bill when it is submitted for approval – hopefully by a division – on the evening of 13 July.

Incorrectly hinting that any PL stalwarts might have threatened anyone during the recent divorce debate – a claim that was never ever substantiated by anyone – one only had to tune in to Radio 101 the day after the divorce referendum result was out to gauge who happened to be in a belligerent and warmongering mood or not.

All hands were evidently on deck within the PN, even if the ship happens to remind us of the Titanic, with Gonzi busy trying to rearrange the deck chairs while the ship sank gracefully.

The core issue is whether the PN is still in time to save the day and regain its lost turf amongst liberal voters on the island.

One can mention various instances when the PN recently tried to downplay the weight of conservative elements within its ranks.

Reports that Beppe Fenech Adami was politely asked to withdraw from a Xarabank appearance, that appeared in other sections of the local media, were never denied by the PN itself.

The choice of sending the smart and liberal young Nationalist MP Karl Gouder to participate in the Xarabank programme featuring Joseph Muscat was no inadvertent choice either.

Although by the time of writing I will not have yet seen Bondi+ I am confident that coming as it does in the wake of the PN’s general council it’s subliminal message will be that in spite of the evident cracks, the PN – the Religio et Patria party – can and will paper over them; and that all is not lost even if things might appear to be heading that way.

I am sure that a poll about the state of play between the two parties and the two leaders that appeared in another section of the local media two Sundays ago must have worried more than a strategist or two within the PN’s ranks.

The PN’s hybrid credentials could not have been emphasised more than when Tonio Borg himself described his own party as a conservative party that nevertheless did not shirk from carrying out liberal and radical reforms.

That such thoughts were instantly sabotaged by Edwin Vassallo when he claimed that the referendum result confirmed the wishes of the electorate but did not confirm the truth, says it all about what values the PN really treasures and how it happens to cherish them.

This contrasted sharply with the far smarter comments by the Minister of Health that the PN is ‘proud of its diversity’.

The PN is fully aware as a particular delegate or councillor pointed out, that it happens to be in the middle of a battle for the soul of the party – stranded somewhere in between its Christian Democrat principles and the expectations of various strata of Maltese society. The fact that appeals were made for a balance to be struck between such values and expectations, shows that the scales so far are tipped in one particular direction.

Cyrus Engerer who definitely belongs to the liberal wing of the party indirectly snubbed Gonzi’s referendum campaign claim when he stated that we need to adapt our good values to the realities that we are presently experiencing and living.

The choice of Joe Friggieri as a keynote speaker on Sunday – the very same Prof Friggieri who had boldly questioned Eddie Fenech Adami’s call on MPs to ideally ditch the referendum legislation that will come up shortly in Parliament, was no coincidence.

It was also evident that an amount of stage management was also involved in the run-up to the party speeches, with the majority of the PN grassroots carefully avoiding any temptation or instinctive reaction that they might have had to rock the boat further in the wake of the turbulence of the past weeks.

It is for this reason that contrary to what Eddie Fenech Adami believes, the PN wants the divorce chapter closed as early as possible, so that under the pretext of a policy review or revamp in the employment, education, health and environment sectors they will be able to move on and shift the national agenda.

One thing emerged clearly during this week’s general council: That regardless of who might win the general elections, right now the PN is arguably going through the most difficult period in 15 years. Something for which Joseph Muscat deserves more than a little merit and credit.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change