The wonders of Facebook Live.

For all those who wish to keep up to date with the news, there is today that wonderful invention called Facebook Live.

In one single afternoon last Wednesday, I could tune in to the House of Commons and Theresa May’s statement at Prime Minister’s Question Time and the unique atmosphere there.

Then in the evening I had a choice – I could tune in to the EPP congress that was being held in Malta or I could tune in to the Meet the Public session held at the Museum of Archaeology by Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister Muscat and Commissioner Vella.

I could never understand the point of the EPP meetings, although I attended innumerable pre-Council meetings of the EPP in Brussels. The EPP meetings for us journalists were occasions where we could literally rub shoulders with the high and mighty, something we could barely do at the Council proper. I remember the media scrum when Silvio Berlusconi used to arrive, usually very late, and the thorough preparations made by Julia Timoshenko’s aides. The Ukraine was, and still is, out of the EU, so the EPP meeting was the only place where Timoshenko could meet the EU leaders in the EPP.

But the time they spent in discussions was usually too short for serious debate.

I do not know about the Malta congress. The setting was quite good but as seen on Facebook, each speaker spoke in his national language, which, in the case of, for example, the Bulgarian prime minister was unintelligible. I guess Simon Busuttil, who spoke in Maltese, was equally unintelligible, at least on Facebook.

Discussions that are more serious were held on the morrow, with the presence of Angela Merkel. At least, as seen from the photos, the German chancellor was grimly focusing on the serious situation in Europe (while next to her Dr Busuttil was quite inappropriately grinning from ear to ear.

Predictably, the Maltese media seem to have focused more on Dr Busuttil’s speech rather than what was going on at the Congress, so we will have to wait until we get a fuller description from other sources.

Silvio Berlusconi also attended, but as he had promised before he was allowed to be present (he has still to be freed by the courts to take on a political role again), he was completely silent.

Also on Facebook but at the other end of the spectrum, there was the public meeting at the National Museum.

One could ask what the validity of such a meeting was. After all, one could argue, Malta holds the Presidency of the Council but the action was elsewhere – in London, in Brussels. But here was Mr Europe himself, Juncker, who sat patiently listening and replying to all interventions, including some by Malta’s prize bores, with calmness, lucidity and with something substantial for one and all. Anyone could ask and get a reply, including a small schoolgirl who fluffed her lines.

This was Europe, the real Europe, not the Europe of power as the EPP Congress, but the Europe of peoples, the Europe of village meetings where anybody could ask questions and get replies. If the questions were rather tangential, that was due to the questioners, not the speakers.

Themes such as Brexit require high-level negotiations and probably a number of Council meetings. Issues such as jobs, unemployment and growth are probably higher on many people’s minds.

The next day, the government came out with its bombshell announcement that Malta was no longer in deficit but in surplus. One needs to wait until this is confirmed by Eurostat, although the reactions by rating agencies, such as Standard & Poor’s, are quite positive.

But confirming the present state of unease and worse inside the Nationalist Party, the PN leader fluffed the issue when he chose to make some flippant and top of the head remark to a group of young EPP students who probably did not understand anything that he said.

Such an issue called for a proper analysis and a proper statement, well-thought out and well-researched, pointing out how the Gonzi administration had prepared for this day, and maybe, one still hopes, giving credit where credit is due, unless this sticks in the gullet. There is still much more where one can criticize the government. Maybe one does not need to demonise it 24/7 and at 360 degrees.

Such a blinkered approach is going to ensure another Labour term.

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