Now that the Nationalist Party has moved from a position of putting up appearances into belligerent mode, then it too must be feeling that the end is near

While previously it used to handle internal dissent with caution, fearing that rocking the boat too much could accelerate the pace towards an early election, the party has now decided to take on dissent abrasively.

The way the party executive went about publicly condemning three of its own backbenchers in the aftermath of the Richard Cachia Caruana vote, demonstrates that the PN – now simmering in internal strife – is prepared to take any risk, including that of alienating its own ilk and provoking their ire. Thus henceforth anything can happen anytime.

Whether or not the three condemned nationalist MPs still hold Gonzi in their confidence, after the executive’s declaration of war, is a matter that is neither here nor there.

The fact is that the PL was right to believe that notwithstanding the safe passage of Gonzi’s last vote of confidence, nothing has changed. To the contrary, things are now going from bad to worse with the Nationalist Party on one side and three of its own MPs on the other, continuously trading insults.

This also seems to seal the political fate of two of the dissenters as one of them, JPO, had already declared that he would not stand for re-election again.

Notwithstanding Franco Debono’s publicly-declared wish to contest again on behalf of the Nationalist Party, the prospect of his candidature being rejected should now be sinking in him.

When the Prime Minister assured him that he wished him to contest the next general election IF (my emphasis) the party executive confirmed his candidature first, Dr Debono must have, or at least should have, suspected that Dr Gonzi was taking him for a ride. His chances of winning the trust of the very same executive that has just condemned him are indeed bleak.

There isn’t a chance in hell that the Prime Minister would tell Franco straight to his face, that he will be opposing his candidature during this legislature’s lifetime as, make no mistake, knowing the impulsive Franco, Dr Gonzi will have to call an election by October this year – a prospect the Prime Minister is resisting.

As for Jesmond Mugliett , although he has never publicly declared whether or not to recontest, my very intuitive fine tuners prod me to believe that privately he has already made up his mind and that it is more likely that he will follow the steps of JPO, rather than be taken to the dogs by the executive.

I do not exclude however that the PN will also be taking measures against other MPs who, although they have not gone as far, have made public outbursts that damaged the credibility of the government.

They too will be unsure of their future when Parliament is dissolved.

The way I see it, the sooner this legislature’s life comes to an end, the more bitter the language of the PN will be in the face of dissent. It has nothing to lose.

True, the PN has an innate survival instinct, but this time it will go to election as a dismembered party, a factor that distinguishes it from the slick party that faced the last general election.

And the more the party executive rubs its MPs the wrong way, the higher the likelihood of it having to deal with more dissent.

Dr Gulia is the Opposition’s Main Spokesman for Tourism and Air Malta