The Nationalist Party took a bizarre decision to re-instate Samuel Azzopardi to the post of Victoria mayor after on Tuesday he was found guilty of driving under the influence following a traffic accident in Gozo earlier this year.

Mr Azzopardi had rightly suspended himself from the party, and resigned from mayor, soon after the accident was made public. But, in spite of being found guilty, he’s back.

In its statement announcing that Mr Azzopardi had been re-instated, the PN quoted Magistrate Joe Mifsud’s judgment in which it was argued that such an incident should not deprive Mr Azzopardi from continuing his work in the community.

The court, as is practice, believes in giving second chances. But it is completely different in politics.

The PN should not have taken heed of what the magistrate said. It should have sustained its original stand. It should not have closed the chapter as if nothing had happened.

It is very weird that the PN chose to give the position back to Mr Azzopardi after he was found guilty. It should have been the other way round. He should have been given the post back only if he had been found not guilty.

The PN’s decision has now put the party in a very awkward position.

For the past months the PN has been speaking about the importance of keeping up political standards, that people should be held accountable for their behaviour, that if people holding a public position are found to have acted improperly they should resign or be removed. The PN has demanded action to be taken against people who were not found guilty of anything.

But in the Samuel Azzopardi case it has acted differently from the way it has been preaching.

By taking this approach, the PN has lost the edge it had over the Labour government in circumstances such as this one. Simon Busuttil had been very tough with people like Giovanna Debono and Joe Cassar, and this had given the PN more credibility in the eyes of the public on matters pertaining to accountability.

The resignations of the two former ministers showed that Simon Busuttil meant business when he said he was prepared to take action on his own people.

All this has been lost now and the PN has painted itself into a corner.

How can it now demand resignations when it chose to re-embrace a person who was found guilty?

How can it now expect people to be removed?

The PN says that it leads by example in this kind of situations. Not on this one, I’m afraid.