Only time will tell whether the Nationalist Party’s promise to safeguard the environment and not allow any type of building projects in outside development zones will be kept.

But Simon Busuttil’s pledge over the weekend is the strongest declaration that he has made since taking over the leadership of the Nationalist Party. He will be reminded of it in the next years, and all eyes will be on him if and when he becomes Prime Minister. Saying sorry for what happened in the past, particularly if he was not part of the mistakes, was easy. It’s what the PN will be doing from now onwards that will be under scrutiny.

What’s been happening these last few days and especially this weekend is a huge attempt by the PN to be seen as the real green party and, if Simon Busuttil maintains this kind of momentum on environmental matters, the PN would have effectively laid the foundation stone of its campaign to win back Castille.

By becoming the champion of environmental issues, the PN will also be killing the tiny relevance that Alternattiva Demokratika still has in the local political scenario. But that’s of limited importance, seeing that AD’s relevance is, as said, tiny and getting smaller.

The greater picture sees a party leader give an unprecedented assurance to keep future projects out of undeveloped land. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. We have a prime minister who pledged to resign if a new power station was not built in two years, and he’s still there in spite of failing miserably. I just hope that Busuttil will be more of a man if he fails to keep his promise.

What was also exceptional this weekend was the presence of a Labour MP in a Nationalist Party activity.  Marlene Farrugia has done what no other politician had ever done. Addressing an event organised by a rival political party – and speaking boldly against a project that is being pushed by her own government – is something extraordinary.

There were other politicians who threatened their own party and who ended up celebrating with their supposedly political rivals – and were handsomely rewarded for that – but they never went as far as Marlene Farrugia did yesterday. They only showed their true colours once the election was over.

But Marlene Farrugia is effectively saying to one and all that nothing stands between her and her principles. And what she’s doing is not for her personal gain or because of a grudge, but simply because she believes that her own party is going against what it promised before the election.

Seeing the movement against the project growing every day, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Sunday gave another hint that there will be some kind of back-tracking – in the hope that he will then be believed that he leads a government that listens.

But a government that truly listens is one that will completely call off the project at Zonqor Point. A compromise is not enough.