Is tonight going to be GonziPN's final act? Looks like it if you had to go by Dr Franco Debono's latest public statements that he will not be abstaining but will definitely vote against the budget.

And with the Prime Minister making it plainly clear that he would immediately call a general election if the Budget fails its first Parliamentary test then this legislature and possibly the entire Gonzipn system will cease to exist.

It has been a very difficult five years for the Prime Minister and a truly harrowing experience for him during the last 12 months. This was a year that has gone beyond its political lifeline with the Prime Minister continuously labouring to outmanoeuvre dissidence within his own parliamentary group and prolong his governance against all odds.

It was all time wasted for the country. The Prime Minister should have blown the whistle earlier on this year when it became amply clear that there was no way he could bridge differences with a fistful of angry and dejected nationalist MPs. We could have gone to the polls before summer, gave the country, families and businesses the tranquillity and certainty that they deserve and secured a budget for the new year backed by a solid and a confident majority.

But Dr Gonzi was dead set to defy logic and put his party and his authority before the national interest.

Now we are looking at a budget that has been rushed to intensive care the moment Tonio Fenech bore it to the nation and we are now all helpless spectators watching its breath getting shorter and shorter until its life is spent.

Of course this is what seems to be the inevitable as we speak. But in politics a week is a long time and - permit me to add - a day is not a short while either. Between this morning and this evening anything can happen that can defy all expectations.

This legislature's fate will obviously depend on whether Dr Franco Debono will remain loyal to his word. Past experience has shown that, although he had clearly voted to bring down a minister and an ambassador, he hesitated when faced with a scenario that his actions will bring down his government. It is the typical chess game being played between him and the Prime Minister who will obviously try to blame Dr Debono for bringing down the government when in reality everyone knows that it has been Dr Gonzi's weak leadership all along and his resilience to compromise that has brought his government to a total meltdown.

All this is coming at a time when the GonziPN system is clearly showing signs of lethargy. Nothing is as slick as it used to be with the Prime Minister himself and many of his acolytes making blunders of the first order, starting off with the infamous Brazilian investment that never existed and ending with that scary anonymous letter sent to families for which the PN first denied paternity only to confirm it a couple of hours later.

It is fast turning into a comedy. Only God knows what else will happen within the nationalist party between now and tomorrow as news of novel blunders is breaking at supersonic speed.

We wait with bated breath for this evening's crescendo. Whatever the outcome the end is near.

The GonziPN system is now moribond.

Dr Gulia is the Opposition's Main Spokesman on Tourism and Air Malta