With less than a year to go until the election is held, and considering the unusual situation we will have in Parliament once this reconvenes in October, there will be no respite from politics this summer.

In other years, when Parliament rises for the summer recess, we usually get a break from the daily dose of political events and speeches. Politicians take their holidays and there is a slowdown in activities too.

Not this year.

The way things have developed in recent weeks has meant that political talk is still high on the country’s agenda. With Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando resigning from the Nationalist Party, and with Franco Debono’s position in the PN still unclear, we are set to hear so much speculation as to what can happen in the short term.

Dr Debono’s unavailability for last Thursday’s PN executive meeting, which was to discuss his claim that his ban to contest the election on the PN ticket was unfair, continues to add to the uncertainty of how the position the PN took will affect its administration.

As yet, the Opposition has to give signs that it will try to take further advantage of the PN’s internal strife. The Labour Party has always been ready to use opportunities that come its way to force embarrassment on the government, through motions it presented in Parliament on issues – or should we say people? – that were being attacked by members on the government side. It happened with Austin Gatt last November, and continued with Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and Richard Cachia Caruana in May and June.

But although Labour scored points, its intentions to create instability and bring down the government have not succeeded. Whether the PL is prepared to once again try to push for an early election through parliamentary procedures that will possibly lead the government to lose votes remains to be seen. To many, the PL is being seen as being too eager to return to power – although it defends itself by saying that, after all, it is the PN that wants to cling to the seat of power in spite of all the difficulties it is facing.

For its part, the PN is determined to finish the legislature – and this mostly because many of the projects that could give it a boost in the eyes of the electorate still have to be completed, foremost among which is the City Gate development.

Whether it will succeed is another matter. And this depends mostly on what Dr Pullicino Orlando and Dr Debono will do.