We have heard the same phrases over and over again these last few months.
The Labour Party accuses the Nationalist Party of clinging to power and using every means to stretch this administration right up to the end of the five-year term, in spite of facing extreme internal difficulties due to the behaviour of a few of its MPs, one of whom ended up resigning from the party and become independent.
On the other hand, the Nationalist Party accuses the Labour Party of having a thirst for that same power by taking every single opportunity that comes its way to try to force the early fall of the government so that the country goes to the polls before the end of the statutory five years.
Both accusations have an element of truth in them.
This government has had to face an unprecedented barrage of attacks that several times has taken it to the edge of the precipice, only for it to be pulled back at the last minute. Each time, the Labour Party has taken advantage of the trouble caused by renegade Nationalist MPs, showing too much eagerness to return to government after three consecutive terms in opposition. It happened again this week regarding the lease of St Philip’s Hospital by the government.
It can be said that, so far, the Nationalist Party has been able to survive everything that has been thrown at it, and in the meantime lead the country well in tough economic times that have crippled many of our European neighbours. That the crisis we currently have is about car parks, when other countries have record unemployment figures and people protesting in the streets, says it all. This week, Greece registered a 25 per cent unemployment rate; compared with Greece, our problems are minute.
Even if an election were to be called for November, this government would have gone as far or even beyond what Eddie Fenech Adami Nationalist administrations have in the past. On three occasions, Dr Fenech Adami called an election well before the five years had elapsed – after four years and nine months in 1992, four years and eight months in 1996 and four years and six months in 2003.
At this point in time, if the Prime Minister had to call an election tomorrow for November, this Lawrence Gonzi administration would have governed for four years and eight months, in line with the Fenech Adami governments. The difference, of course, is that at no point did Dr Fenech Adami have to contend with so many internal difficulties as Lawrence Gonzi has had to.
It must be said that the fact that this government has managed to reach this point is an achievement in itself. However, whether the Nationalist Party has earned any points for this will be seen when the country goes to vote. It depends on whether Dr Gonzi is supported by voters who see him as a Prime Minister who has earned a solid reputation for keeping the country afloat in the worst economic period in recent history, or whether he is seen as a leader who was unable to control some members of his party. Which is the more important?
On the other side of the political fence, the Labour Party has pushed for an early election right from the very first signs of instability. Perhaps it wanted the PN to go through the same misery the Labour Party went through in 1998, when the last PL government collapsed after just 22 months. The PN has calculated that the PL has called for an election 23 times in this legislature.
Often, the Labour Party tried to force the issue when it saw a chance that it could return to government. At other times, it opportunistically leapt on the bandwagon when Nationalist MPs were expressing their disdain for the present administration.
PL leader Joseph Muscat says that the PL is in no hurry for an election, but the party’s past and present actions give the lie to this statement. Its recent call for an urgent debate on the car parks tender issue is another giveaway. The government has suspended the call for tenders, and so there is no real urgency on the matter. The fact that Labour demanded an urgent debate on the motion presented by its transport spokesman Joseph Sammut is a clear sign that the PL is seeing a possibility that this government can be humbled yet again – and this time it will likely be the final blow.
Dr Muscat has also said that the PL has no interest in presenting a vote of no confidence in the government. However this does not camouflage the Labour Party’s real intentions enough. With so much hanging in the balance, in spite of the triviality of the issue, the PL is seeing its car parks motion as a way of preventing the government from presenting the budget which, being the last one in this legislature, could attract a few extra votes for the PN.
The Labour Party has denied this is its real motive, but then it knows that a forced resignation of another minister – following that of Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and Ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana – would be a crippling setback for the government and could lead to an election before the budget is presented.
The Labour Party also knows that if a good, positive budget is not approved because of grudges that go beyond real politics, it will still be perceived as a victory for the PN, and this is something that the Labour Party wants to avoid on the eve of an election.
If the budget is not approved in spite of planned positive measures, the PN government will be portrayed as having been denied the possibility of doing good things for Malta because of personal resentment, and this will work in the PN’s favour among the floating voters.
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