A survey is merely a snapshot of one moment in time. Taken on a particular day, it simply reflects people’s views on the main issues affecting them at that point. Last Sunday’s survey about the relative strength of the two main parties is exactly that. Of course it is open to interpretation and analysis.

In a nutshell, last Sunday’s survey is telling us that the gap between the two parties has gone down from 12% (in 2013) to 0.8% (in 2016). It is also telling us that people’s trust in Joseph Muscat has gone down, since 2013, by 10% (from 47% to 37%) while Simon Busuttil’s trust rating has gone up by almost 4%.

This all sounds great for the PN but I would advise caution to all those who may get euphoric and claim victory of sorts. There is, however, one man who deserves a moment to take it all in, the man who has worked relentlessly to bring us to where we are today, and that is none other than Simon Busuttil.

To me this survey is very encouraging. The momentum will give us the drive to work harder in the years to come. It is however definitely not a point of arrival. We are halfway through a legislature. Unless more scandals continue to undermine Muscat’s performance, the Prime Minister will continue to hang on to power for as long as it takes.

Muscat cannot afford to commit any more mistakes. He definitely can’t afford more scandals. He also has some very thorny issues in hand, which politically are hurting him immensely. There is Konrad Mizzi to start off with. The longer Mizzi stays in power, the more the problem he represents will linger. Same applies to his trusted chief of staff. Both must go and the longer they stay, the bigger the negative consequences for Muscat and for Malta.

Naturally, Muscat cannot afford to use more distraction tactics, which will simply backfire in his face. The gay marriage issue, the Toni Abela nomination, with his disastrous grilling, are simply two cases which Muscat could have easily avoided. It is no use trying to blame others when the responsibility is purely and simply Muscat’s.

Two weeks ago I was in Brussels on parliamentary work, where I bumped into Toni Abela. We chatted for a few hours and his concern with the upcoming grilling was more than evident. Abela had words of praise for the PN MEPs who assisted him. He specifically mentioned David Casa who had, apparently, introduced Abela to several MEPs and lobbied in favour of Abela in the interest of our image as a country.

Helena Dalli thought it would go down well with the PL hardcore if she pointed fingers at the Opposition and blame them for Abela’s poor performance. Yet, even Alfred Sant, who is based in Brussels, confirmed that David Casa assisted Abela. The result shows very plainly that the issues brought up in the grilling, particularly the issue on corruption and the infamous drug story at the PL club, proved to be Abela’s downfall.

Does anyone think that MEPs could not have discovered those two issues on their own, performing a simple Google search? Does anyone think that having Cyrus Engerer as your lobbyist would have those two issues seem less relevant rather than more?

Muscat is the one and only person who should carry the responsibility for this very embarrassing event. He either chose the wrong person because he misjudged the whole grilling event or (even worse) he purposely chose to send Toni Abela knowing too well that the chances of failure were high. In any case, this is definitely another episode our country could have done without.