The Nationalist Party is in a transition.

It is in between leaders, so to speak. Lawrence Gonzi announced that he will not be seeking re-election as party leader soon after the election result was out. Since then, nearly two months down the line, the party is organising an election to elect his successor. There are four contenders for the election, which will be held on Saturday, with a probable sequel next week because it is implausible that one of them will get the required 66.6% of the votes.

Until it has its new leader, the PN is in limbo. But it does not mean that it has to accept everything. Although it is not in full gear and it has not reacted properly to all decisions that have been taken by the government – some of which demanded a more vociferous opposition – it has nonetheless understood well what its role in opposition is.

And therefore it has not accepted – and we would add rightly so – the idea that the government, in particular Joseph Muscat, that members of the Opposition should work shoulder to shoulder with the government.

Dr Muscat floated the proposal several times, but the PN has not taken the bait. The last time it happened was on Tuesday when the government said that the PN had refused to take part in a bipartisan committee on economic growth. The government interpreted this move as a sign that the PN is not interested in positive politics and that it has not learnt the lesson of the election defeat.

But the PN justified its decision saying that its constitutional role is to act as an Opposition to the government and that it cannot act as its consultant. If the PN had accepted to take part in this committee, it would have been tantamount to taking up a role within the same government. If Tonio Fenech, as the government suggested, had accepted the position offered to him by the government, he would have been in conflict with the role of an Opposition MP.

The Opposition’s role is to monitor what the government does and it cannot act as its consultant.  If it accepts to take part in the administration, it would then be forming part of the decision-making process, something that would clash with what its constitutional role is.

The government may have offered such a possibility maliciously, to be able to argue – if something goes wrong after decisions are taken – that the PN formed part of the team. Or else it does not understand what the role of the Opposition is.