Since the MEP election results two weeks ago, I have been inundated with calls, e-mails and messages from Nationalists who voted Labour or simply did not vote at all. This downpour was triggered by my participation on Radio 101’s morning political show “Wavelength” late last week. 

Many people are still very angry at the PN. They still want to unbottle what they have been holding inside for so long. Yes, they are greatly disappointed with Muscat’s Government and his broken promise of change. However, the old anger at the PN exceeds the new disappointment with Labour.

I believe the feeling is a complicated but understandable one. Such voters still identify with the PN. Anger reaches such levels when one is disappointed by someone whom one loves. When one is disappointed by someone in whom one never had much faith, one does not get so impassioned.

My assessment therefore is that the fact that former PN voters are still expressing their anger with the party is a double-edged sign. On the one hand, it shows how much work the PN still needs to do. On the other, it shows that people do want us to listen. They want us to change because they know that, at the end of the day, Muscat’s key policies and arrogance do not bode well.

Unemployment

No matter what Muscat does to toy with the facts, the truth is that his government has not managed to create enough jobs. It’s an issue he laughed off during the general election campaign.

Many of the jobs created have a retrograde feel. They are reminiscent of Mintoff’s days . They are being offered by expanding the public sector or else through almost precarious contracts.

Malta’s unemployment rate within the EU has slid down from fourth place (as it was during the last PN government) to seventh. Other countries are overtaking us. Our rate of 6.8% is not enough to compete with recovering economies like the UK, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

The hard work ahead

Simon Busuttil’s speech last Sunday at the Sta Venera PN club was empowering and inspiring. He looked at the two electoral results (votes and seats) and spoke strongly of how he intends to grasp this opportunity. He insisted once again that he will not give up on the task ahead. He stood up and addressed supporters with rolled up sleeves, a sign that he means business.

In moments like this, a party needs strong leadership and Simon Busuttil is showing the determination to be exactly what the party needs and what the country needs.

For some, the MEP defeat, so close to the general elections, came too soon. I take a different view. I see it as a blessing in disguise. If any important changes to the party’s approach needed to be made, it is important that the point is registered now.

I believe that Simon Busuttil is the man who can steer us through the huge challenges ahead. No, he is not Joseph Muscat. But I really do not think we need another one. I do not fancy swaggering leaders. I prefer leaders who are calm, rational and who really care, to those who appeal only to emotion and care only to make themselves the arbiters of every choice.

Many things have changed since the 1970s. But there is at least one thing that has returned. The country is faced with a choice of two very different kinds of leader: a Mintoff-type, loud, brash, self-centred, and a Fenech Adami-type, quieter but also steely.

I have no doubt about what kind of leader this country needs again. Convincing people will be a hard task, as it was the first time. But persuasion is possible, one step at a time.

Claudette Buttigieg MP – [email protected], twitter: @ButClaudette