I think we made a bigger fuss than we should have on the nomination of Valletta as the European Capital of Culture in 2018.

We seem to take matters too seriously. Let me correct that – we seem to take unimportant matters too seriously. We even had TVM showing the announcement live as if it was man landing on the moon for the first time. At least we did not have a fireworks display. Other countries take such things in their stride, but we look as such happenings as if they are the be-all and end-all of our country. It is the insular mentality that no European membership can eliminate.

I am sure that, had we not managed to clinch this honour – if it must be called such – we would have fallen into a collective depression and created a crisis, pointing fingers at all those involved because they had failed us. It would have become a highly controversial political issue. We would have wanted heads to roll. We would have spoken of money being thrown down the drain, just as we behave when we fail to make it to the Eurovision Song Contest final – which is a national disaster.

Our capital city – which, according to the latest census, continues to register a substantial decline in population figures and still goes to sleep at 7pm when the shops close, while other capital cities abroad have the largest segment of their population concentrated in the capital which is alive 24 hours a day – will be a focal point for culture throughout 2018. Or so we have been told.

What few have failed to realise is that, if matters take their natural course, in 2018 we will be right in the middle of an election campaign. And since we do not take things lightly over here – as we are seeing these days in the current election campaign, which has not officially started, but which has been going on for months – a looming election always takes centre stage and affects everything else, including cultural events.

We have all heard that local council activities had to be postponed because the Labour Party decided to hold a mass meeting the day after Malta celebrated its independence. Perhaps here I should say half of Malta since, according to some Labour exponents, it is a Nationalist feast, not a national one. So I wonder what would happen to cultural activities planned for 2018 if we are going to have an election campaign running concurrently. Are we going to go through all this trouble and then have to cancel or shift activities just because it will be time to vote again? Will we be spending thousands of euros on marketing campaigns to attract as many tourists as possible and then, when they come over, tell them that events have had to be postponed or cancelled because Malta will be voting for a new government?

There’s something else that will happen in a few years’ time, something which is definitely more important than the capital of culture topic – at least on a political level.

This will be the historic occasion when Malta will be the European Union President for the first time in its history. As you know, each country takes over the EU presidency for six months on a rotational system, and Malta will have this opportunity in the first half of 2017, supposedly well within the five-year term of the next government.

It would be very ironic if a Labour government were to be in power for such a momentous occasion for the country – for the simple reason that the Labour Party has historically been against European Union membership, and fought tooth and nail for Malta to remain out.

The PL has since said that it accepts the decision taken by the people, but this does not cancel the efforts it made, and the scaremongering tactics it adopted, to try to leave Malta in the wilderness, going as far as saying that Malta would be getting only €3.5 million (Lm1.5 million) from the EU, that we would be taken over by the Sicilians and that we would have an Aids epidemic. Labour also invented the idea of a partnership with the EU and the concept of a “Switzerland in the Mediterranean”.

We have now experienced the EU for more than eight years, and we all know that Malta has made great strides forward, mostly thanks to the European funds that have come our way. But it was not only money that we obtained through our membership.

On the other hand, the current Opposition Leader had mounted a crusade against European Union membership. He had written many articles and delivered many speeches in which he adamantly opposed the idea of membership. He even advised other countries to stay out and keep their distance from the EU. And although, at the time, Joseph Muscat was still on the lowest of rungs of the Labour Party’s ladder of power, he was among the more vociferous of those against membership.

We have already experienced one irony: when he was later elected as a Member of the European Parliament. He failed in his efforts to keep Malta out, but was then quick to take the opportunity of a lucrative life in Brussels.

Now, in all probability, Joseph Muscat will have the chance of leading Malta as President of the EU in 2017. With Labour a strong favourite to win the next election, all he has to do is hold on to power and avoid the mistakes made by his predecessor in the last Labour government. Then he will take over the presidency of the European Union against which he fought so much.

Who said that life is fair?

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