Most likely, the budget for 2013 will be presented in the last week of November. Although no exact date has been set, what the Prime Minister said on Xarabank last Friday and what was reported in the media indicates that the government has finally made up its mind. So, given that budgets are normally presented on Mondays or Wednesdays, the date for the budget is either 26 or 28 November.

But it is not the budget presentation that will grab the focus of the media, and consequently of the public. It is the vote that will be taken after the Prime Minister, nine days after its presentation, will reply to the Opposition Leader’s address. That will be the most crucial date, unless by some unprecedented way, the discussion on the budget does not take place immediately after it is presented.

Good or bad as it may be – and, being on the eve of an election, it is likely that it will be good, in general terms – the budget needs the approval of Parliament. And it is here that the problem lies. This is because the government now does not have a majority in Parliament, and we have to wait and see to know whether what it plans for 2013 will be approved or not.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando started off this term as a Nationalist MP, but resigned from the party this summer in the wake of a decision taken by the PN executive on his motion about former Malta EU Ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana. This meant that the one-seat majority the PN enjoyed in the House was lost – we now have a situation of 34 seats for the PN, 34 for the PL, and one independent member.

Dr Pullicino Orlando has in the past said he has no intentions to rock the boat, but in an article published yesterday in The Malta Independent on Sunday, he does throw doubts on what his intentions are. When he speaks of an “unprecedented level of disdain and disrespect towards Parliament”, he is telling one and all that he does not agree with the government’s procrastination in the House. Whether he will eventually vote against the government is a question he will answer when the time comes.

The Franco Debono situation is also sounding alarm bells in the PN fold. After a lull, Dr Debono has once again turned his guns against his own party following a declaration that the decision on his ban to contest the next election on behalf of the PN will stand. Again, we will get the answer to this question when the time comes.

When, after the Prime Minister’s reply to the Opposition Leader, Parliament will vote on the budget, there will be much more at stake than the approval or disapproval of the financial exercise.