GonziPN’s government is crumbling down. The pro-Nationalist media, including of course the PBS news bulletin, is doing its absolute best to portray an image that with Lawrence Gonzi as Prime Minister we can all go to sleep with a big smile on our face thanks to the ‘par idejn sodi’ of this man

It is all so fake. The truth is that beneath this thick – and well-financed – layer of marketing and mediasmiths’ work, there’s a terribly weak government which is finding immense difficulty to keep its act together and lead this country forward.

I’ve honestly lost count of all the instances where Lawrence Gonzi had to backtrack or shuffle his cards in order to win the opportunity to fight another day. Be it on the issue of the Co-Cathedral project or on the right of assistance by lawyers or on the health care reform or on divorce or the black dust or the bus service or justice reform or the hefty pay rise to ministers to name the first which come to mind, Lawrence Gonzi had to fudge, limp, adjust and borrow to carry the day in some way or another.

If this means that Lawrence Gonzi is a strong Prime Minister, then I’m Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This par idejn sodi man is in such a sorry state – politically speaking – that he has found himself in a position where he had to compromise on the set-up of his very own Cabinet in order to accommodate the angry and persistent outbursts of one of his own MPs – which is really saying something.

Now, as we all know, the most fundamental power of the Prime Minister is to appoint ministers and split the political responsibilities among them. Without this power a Prime Minister would not be the primus inter pares but a complete equal like all the others. It’s like having Fabio Capello coaching the England national football team with Theo Walcott picking and choosing the actual formation.

I am sure that in the coming days we will read articles penned by the usual pro-GonziPN coterie which will bring forward the argument that Lawrence Gonzi decided overnight, out of conviction, to split the responsibilities of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry into two. This is of course pure gibberish. I still recall Gonzi’s hullabaloo at the start of the legislature on how good a lean Cabinet is and how lucky we all are that we only have to face nine ministers and six parliamentary secretaries for these five years. 

Now he has decided to increase the amount of ministers from nine to 10 on the eve of the debate on Justice and Home Affairs Ministry in order to placate a fiery and determined Franco Debono. Or else, it must be that par idejn sodi has seen the light on his way to Damascus and has convinced himself that his team has a tad more talent than he might have led Molly to believe after all.

I’m sure that par idejn sodi must have gone through the roof when he found his authority and leadership being undermined and ridiculed yet again. He must have thought that he was riding on a high after the bravura his party did a few weeks before when it threw all the Religio et Patria discourse out of the window (little knowing that people in the street recognise a fake as soon as they see one, but anyway it’s his business).

So when Gonzi had to face off again another Franco Debono, he must have been brought back to the ground with a thud. Reality must have hit him again in his face. And since these are desperate times for Lawrence Gonzi, he deemed it fit to resort to a desperate measure and renounce authority on matters (such as composition of Cabinet) which up to this very day were decided by Prime Ministers and Prime Ministers alone.

I can’t imagine Eddie Fenech Adami, who by the way is busy trying to convince the general public that the Nationalist Party should remain comfortably tucked up in bed with the Church, bow his head to the persistent outbursts of one of his own group’s backbenchers. The man, Eddie Fenech Adami, had leadership and exercised it accordingly. Lawrence Gonzi, on the other hand, is a prisoner of his own party. Like a rolling stone.

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