The issue has been festering under the nation’s collective skin for over six months now, and this week, at long last, an end to the parliamentary stalemate that has left the government, and the country to a certain extent, in limbo is in sight.

And the only real logical conclusion to this state of affairs is a general election.

When Parliament reconvenes in October, the government side of the parliamentary equation will not only be one man down, but three, after this week’s blacklisting of three MPs from the party’s list of candidates for the next general election. And at least one of these MPs has also said he will not vote along government lines while a certain minister who he blames for his own ban still holds a seat in Cabinet.

The situation, with a narrow one-seat majority and three government MPs with presumably huge axes to grind, will be a dire one come October.

Unless some miraculous feat of diplomacy is pulled off over the summer, it is highly doubtful that the government will be able to muster a parliamentary majority. If it doesn’t, we will most probably go straight to the polls following the first vote the government loses. Or even before that, as the Prime Minister can theoretically suggest to the President that the House be dissolved even during the summer recess.

And if there is no diplomatic end to the situation in sight come the end of September, it could also be very likely that the government would call an election before Parliament reconvenes, so as to save itself the embarrassment of losing votes, and go straight to the polls. The party this week showed its mettle, and that could very well have served as a preliminary springboard to an election campaign. It could not have done so without having at least showed some muscle after all that has transpired of late.

Constitutionally, the government’s term ends next spring but there is no way that the government would be able to avoid votes in Parliament until then, mainly because Budget 2013 beckons this autumn. That budget will have to be voted upon, as will each and every ministry’s budget, as well as the budget’s implementation.

Should reconciliation efforts prove unsuccessful, if there are indeed any at all, it is very difficult to see how the government could expect to pass unscathed through the budget votes, which of course also include money bills. For fear of that, the government could very well time the election so that debates centre around who will, once freshly elected, be able to present the best budget for the country this autumn.

That is a debate that the government may feel it can win, but then again we have not yet seen what Labour’s budget proposals might be. And if the next election were to become a battle of the budgets that should give one cause to worry.

The last thing the economy needs right now are hollow, budget-linked election promises that will, by hook or by crook, need to be at least seen to be fulfilled. In that scenario, in which budget proposals are reduced to immediate bread and butter populist issues, the country could face a very serious, potentially derailing economic crisis.

In that scenario, what the country will need are no-nonsense budget proposals that cut to the heart of the problems the country is facing, and not simply cut taxes or energy rates.

There is no doubt that something simply had to be done to address the rot within the governing Nationalist Party. Now whether blacklisting MPs from the next election was the right, or only, way out of the mess is debatable. As we said, following Thursday’s events, those three MPs will have very large axes to grind, axes large enough to do what was almost unthinkable this time last year – to fell the government.

This state of limbo has created a possible lame duck government that is unable to pass a single Bill has not been good for the country by any stretch of the imagination. And although this week’s Nationalist Party ruling may not necessarily be good for the party, as still remains to be seen, it could be good news for the country since matters have been brought to a head and at some point a very short distance down the road, the Nationalist Party must get its house in absolute order or go to the polls.