The recent impressive success by the PL in the local council elections has proved various points – primarily that the challenges ahead for Labour have become bigger rather than smaller

There should be no room for complacency, triumphalism or too much self-congratulation. In football terms winning the local councils is the equivalent of winning the FA Trophy or the Carling Cup compared to the Premier League.

Were Labour’s electoral successes to be judged purely on an local council basis, by these criteria the PL should have been in government for a decade and a half by now!

Our challenges have become more daunting and we remain underdogs for various reasons.

In the light of such a result as well as in the wake of polls that surfaced last Sunday, one can only expect the PN to intensify its efforts to rely on the powers of incumbency while doing everything possible to woo and win over or back those dissident Nationalist voters who may have for some reason or other chosen to stay at home rather than voting for their own ‘traditional’ party.

Tonio Borg’s statement of a few weeks back that these local elections were interesting in the sense that they could serve as an opinion poll, was ill-timed to say the least, since it showed that the PN always approached local council elections from purely partisan and party angles rather than with the common good and community interests at heart.

What he implied was that the PN would now have – as it already does – access to the full list of non-voters from within its own ranks who they can target thereon to try and mitigate their disgruntlement.

While the Nationalist Party might have given the impression that it adopted a laid-back approach throughout this campaign, nothing can be further from the truth, particularly since even at a local level the PL was not only up against the PN but also against the well-oiled government machine.

Proof of this can be found in the manner in which:

• Expropriated land was compensated right throughout the campaign;

• The way Mepa permits and tax refunds were speeded up – particularly when compared to the sluggishness of 2011;

• The way TVM was used as the lunga mano of the PN right through the campaign not only throughout the by-now perfunctory news bulletins, but also in its heavily biased and jaundiced breakfast show and yes… on many an occasion even during sports programmes on TVM. With the advent of TVM2 one cannot be blamed for predicting the advent of Net TV 3, particularly with TVM itself having long fitted comfortably into the role of cloning Net TV 2!

On the other hand, if it was mistaken of GonziPN to rediscover only days ago, his duty and obligation to show awareness of people’s major bread and butter concerns while realising that projects on their own are unlikely to do the trick – something that we have been predicting for ages – it was equally pathetic that it chose to fight out the local council campaign by merely focusing on a dysfunctional PL Council’s performance at Mosta – as if it was only this locality that mattered – without even bothering to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of other councils, including those PN councils which in all fairness did perform well.

What I found was most telling was that although the PL has often been dismissed as the party of the south, the demographic shift evident this time round has offered manifest proof that the PL is spreading its wings and influence across various sectors of Maltese society as well as various geographic parts of the Maltese islands. Even though the very low turnout at St Paul’s Bay could prove to be deceptive come general election time.

I find it rather unfair of those editorialists who recently claimed that during the campaign the PL merely relied on Labour strongholds. This is far from the truth since the PL visited even those localities which have always been and are predestined to remain PN strongholds.

The PL offered a clear cut, positive and forward-looking programme which included a list of doables that gave further evidence of its practical way forward on most issues.

One trump card of Joseph Muscat’s campaign was that not only did he manage to bring to the fore a cadre of new and highly-promising new young councillors who should go far in the coming months and years, but he also applied a maxim that I am confident that the Maltese electorate will be applying come the next general elections; to reward those who performed well and to kick out those who underperformed or else did not rise to the occasion.

The Julian Galea-Joanna Gonzi statements aired during the campaign not only showed in whose ranks the militant extremists do happen to serve, but it also had a boomerang effect on the PN in the sense that it brought people to their senses in realising that they were far more interested in lending an ear to voices of reason and tolerance rather than the insensitivity that almost smacked of an ethnic prejudice and bias.

How much the general electorate and party delegates are out of sync from one another was confirmed within PN ranks on two separate occasions in recent months.

After the Arriva fiasco that led to a vote of no confidence in Austin Gatt, rather than being censured he was given a rabble rousing welcome by party delegates during a council meeting. Not to mention Gonzi’s subsequent decision to put him at the helm of the PN electoral campaign.

On the other hand only hours after the Julian Galea outbursts hit the media, he received the warmest round of applause from the party faithful when Gonzi recently addressed the PN in one of their public activities under the tent.

If anything, such negativity merely showed how important Joseph Muscat’s positive image and messages are proving to be.

People are interested in politicians who offer hope, confidence and vision rather than yesterday’s men who merely thrive on negativity.

All this explains why things have long evolved way beyond a PL/PN divide into the realm of the trust factor that Joseph Muscat benefits from, at the expense of a perpetually disappointing Lawrence Gonzi who continues to show that he is no match, not only for the PL’s present leader but also when compared to his predecessor Eddie Fenech Adami.

The PL’s biggest mistake will be to rest on its laurels.

The PN cannot by any stretch of the imagination be expected to dip even further. So one should be watchful and vigilant – more than ever – as the gap between the two parties is expected to narrow; while the wheels of government will, as from tomorrow, move into overdrive.

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