Until a few days ago the websites and the comment spaces were all full of Simon Busuttil’s latest ruse – to rope in Marlene Farrugia as part of his Moviment.
PL followers and news portals susceptible to PL whispers crowed that DrBusuttil had not even informed his deputy leaders of the move and that they got wind of it from the media. The same with the PN’s parliamentary group
Many asked in sanctimonious tones: how dare the party leader do this to his party grass roots? DrFarrugia with her known exuberance turned up at the PN meeting and we had a repeat of the scenes that had accompanied SalvuMallia’s first forays at PN dos.
But others shook their heads and wondered whether the PN as a body politic would take to a coalition of sorts with an ecological party that has not yet tested the electoral waters and that exists almost in name only with two or so names known so far. Or whether there would be mutual rejection of the deal.
No sooner than this controversy died down amid reassurances that this deal, still not finalized, will be subjected to a vote in the party executive, than a new controversy erupted. This time it came from revelations by Sandro Chetcuti that he has been asked by both the Labour and the Nationalist leadership to contest the election with them.
To keep this argument focused on the PN side, so far no confirmation and no denial has come from the PN leadership and this has some people more worried than ever. When Daphne’s son won the journalist Pulitzer prize for his work on the Panama Papers and he was congratulated by DrBusuttil, in return he chewed him off and asked him to confirm that people the likes of Sandro Chetcuti would not form part of the PN candidates.
As has been argued, it would have been easy for the PN leader or whoever for him to deny the claim, far more than if he/them were to confirm. The no confirmation/no denial thus raises questions.
Let’s put the two stories together. It is clear that once again a Leader of the Opposition this far ahead of the election, is realizing that depending on the party supporters alone is not sufficient to win the election. Last time round, Dr Muscat created the Moviment, juxtaposing party grassroots with switchers and getting onboard some non-grassroots candidates but he did not go down the way of formal coalitions. This time, DrBusuttil is toying with the idea of a coalition, although the reports of these past days say the grassroots are up in arms.
There is nothing like success that jells together disparate forces, or the smell of success. But objectively talk of a coalition is far more indigestible for a party than talk of a less-defined Moviment. The last time Malta had a coalition of parties was half a century ago and the coalitions then, if I remember correctly, were more post-election than pre-election agreements.
In the case of a PN-PD coalition, this is a very uneven concept between an old, established and widely-popular party and a newly-found party still setting up structures. Given the circumstances, the personality of Marlene Farrugia becomes a big factor in the concerns, given her exuberant character: while many admire her, not all would be ready to get into a coalition agreement with her.
There the matter stands, awaiting developments.
The issue regarding Sandro Chetcuti is quite different. Keep in mind this is as yet unconfirmed. The big issue in this regard is that the possible future coalition with Marlene Farrugiaowes its origin to the Zonqor ODZ development and the widespread ecological protest while Sandro Chetcuti is universally known as defender of developers.
Assuming the story that PN tried to get MrChetcuti as a candidate is true, this drift is diametrically opposed to the PN-PD coalition trend. Is DrBusuttil trying to even things out? Or is he being used by MrChetcuti? Daphne put forward the possibility MrChetcuti may have been turned against Labour because of the db Group getting the ITS prize site for peanuts. And as is known, DrBusuttil has made an enemy of the db Group which in retaliation revealed its former loans/gifts etc to PN thereby exposing a side to PN hitherto kept a State secret.
But whatever may have been MrChetcuti’s intentions in letting loose this rumour, the bigger question is why has DrBusuttil neither confirmed nor denied the story?
Looking at things from a wider perspective, for all the euphoria around the ODZ issue, there were still some who queried the wisdom of a policy of a wide-based party going all the way to becoming a one-issue party, an out and out ecological party.
Since then PN has moved on: its main plank is a protest against all the scandals linked to the present government. I interpret the present silence on the Sandro Chetcuti case as tending to mean the PN intention to send a message it is not against development per se but only against unbridled development based on backroom deals. I do not know if MrChetcuti is the right vehicle for this message which may explain the PN reluctance to show its hand.
On the whole, the PN must hone its stand on development. It cannot become an anti-development party and on the other hand it must show it has learned from this government’s experience with deals done on the fourth floor which then fall mostly that side of what is accepted as just and honest. To start the discussion on an even keel, one must realise how important construction is in this island which has been playing with stones ever since the Temple period. It is too true development and over-development has blighted this country and there is a huge glut of unused buildings all over the country but realistically a party that aims to govern must be realistic with development aiming at the same time to promote a higher quality of development than what we have got so far.
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