The Gift of Life clan must be reeling at the sight of GonziPN practicing what seems tantamount to political abortion – in terms of their approach to the ongoing election campaign.
Everything about GonziPN seems to have aborted and or imploded this past week.
Gonzi himself was outclassed during the Friday Xarabank debate. Let down by his alarming body language. And almost literally lost for words as he found himself very reluctantly having to ‘agree’ with Joseph Muscat’s bold proposal to remove time-barring for prosecuting corrupt politicians.
We had the shocking revelation of alleged oil purchasing kickbacks by way of payment’s reportedly made by Trafigura into the Swiss account of a nominee company owned by an Enemalta procurement committee member who has also long been known as being close to key Nationalist Ministers since moon years ago.
We were all stunned as an apolitical former senior Enemalta Manager made the serious accusation that in causing the loss of a potentially favourable gas investment by Enemalta some 10 years, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt had not only made what was described as his biggest mistake in his whole political career (apart from being the cause of much of the Gonzi government’s present woes) but he also said even more serious things.
We were almost shocked even more by GonziPN’s banal and insulting reaction to the S& P downgrade than at the downgrade itself – even if ignoring for a moment that such a downgrade came at a time when GonziPN were boasting of our strong financial situation. No wonder key independent analysts – economic and political – found Gonzi’s reaction ridiculous and preposterous, bordering on the theatre of the absurd.
We had the mad hatters who had long been claiming that the PL proposal on energy was unworkable and that no serious minded investor for the project could be found, then going on the contradict themselves by claiming that it was already a done deal and that such a deal had been struck already by a company that most probably had bankrolled the whole PL election campaign.
After having had Government lambasting the PL gas project proposal as unworkable and unsustainable and also unfeasible stretched out as it was over a proposed decade, only two days ago we had the Head of the Oxford University Institute of Energy Studies claim that Labour’s 10 year gas deal was not only possible, but also – as some experts had long told me – that international gas prices may actually drop over the next decade. Predictably such a finding was glossed over and ignored completely by the pro Government so called independent printed and online media as well as by Gonzi himself who seems to have been literally left lost for words.
As in the case of the S&P downgrade, all these developments have delivered one big blow to the Nationalist Government at a very delicate time in the election campaign.
What eminent economist Frans Camilleri had to say about such a downgrade in my opinion also applies to other unfolding scenarios too.
Primarily that no amount of wriggling will change that, let alone silly remarks about the Opposition being responsible for all that went wrong.
One would be mistaken to conclude that last week merely saw Government’s economic credentials dented.
Even GonziPN’s whole campaign strategy seems to have aborted. So much so that friends of mine close to PN circles have implied that they can ever hardly recall such a lacklustre campaign by GonziPN, almost implying that the key strategists – who according to some should be fired even before Gonzi himself is shown the door – are giving one and all the impression, that they are merely going through the motions of conducting a campaign. Relying almost exclusively on negativism at its extreme in the absence of any serious minded proposals, electoral programme or manifesto worth talking of.
GonziPN seem to have been outflanked also on a logistical level in terms of the skills and pacing with which the whole campaign has been molded and orchestrated. They seem to have made the serious miscalculation that they were under the wrong impression that Joseph Muscat was merely happy to try and win the elections by default on the basis of the anti Government sentiment that seems to prevail right across the island, even in staunch Nationalist strong holds like the 9th district that I have so far been elected from.
As a friend pointed out to me last Sunday during the massive Rabat mass meeting GonziPN thought that they were up against the same PL of earlier election campaigns when logistical expertise and strategic moves were often conspicuous by their absence.
This does not in any way imply that the result is a far gone conclusion.
If anything as they continue to slide in the polls GonziPN are expected to be nastier and more dangerous.
Particularly if they harbour in their ranks – as many imply and as recent revelations seem to confirm – people so strongly attached to the attractions and benefits of so many years literally controlling the corridors of power – who can ill afford to see the reins of power slip out of their hand. With all the economic and financial connotations that this might imply for them – particularly on a strictly personal basis.
Even the appointment of a new deputy leader for the PN seems to have lost its appeal already with him coming across more than ever as a vacuous politician without any hands on knowhow, and speeches that seem to roll out as if delivered by conveyor belt. In his few weeks as Deputy Leader Louis Grech has already provided far more depth, gravitas and serious analysis that Simon Busuttil must have ever dreamt of doing as he found himself being almost literally anointed as Gonzi’s would be successor.
But perhaps Gonzi’s arguably most damning statement was when he claimed that they are the real Nationalist party.
People including staunch Nationalists are deserting GonziPN for the simple reason that they feel that under his command, the tribal clan running the party and the country are far removed from the Nationalist Party that they grew to love and support wholeheartedly. Some admit so even with us openly with their facial expressions revealing a strong sense of anger at and betrayal by their party’s present leadership.
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