There is a foreboding of doom and gloom across Europe over the elections for the new European Parliament to be held on 25 May. This is to be expected at a time when party lines and ideologies have crossed in such a way as to make one wonder whether there is a sense in it all. However, for the positive-minded of whichever political colour and creed, this is the new political challenge ahead of us, a reawakening, if you will, to the duty of putting things right and meeting people’s expectations at the European level.

This bridging of political ideals and cross-party strategies is really the only way Europe can come out of its present predicament that is now openly culminating into a wave of extreme nationalism and ultra-right-wing views that risks taking the Continent back to almost a century. It is an indictment of what could have been done so much better in terms of listening to people’s views, understanding people’s grievances and doing something about them rather than vaguely hoping they do not lose what European Dream they once held on to.

The result has been obvious and all so predictable. European citizens almost everywhere have gradually flocked to new parties, movements and personalities preaching the very words they had been uttering on the street, at home and the workplace. There is a new reality which can either be met with as big a sense of realism as has been shown thus far by the favourites in the opinion polls or the sad option of senseless political frigidity.

Both the leading political groups inside the current European Parliament – the Group of Socialists and Democrats and the European People’s Party – are highly aware of the situation. Both are in fact being earmarked for more losses when Europe goes to the hustings later this month. While the Centre loses ground, the forces of extreme politics are aiming to make new gains, to infiltrate further the corridors of power everywhere at national and regional levels.

One would be unwise to believe the so-called collateral damage from this volatile situation could only hit one side or the other of the political/ideological fence. Europe’s troubled vessel needs all the oars it can handle to make sure it can get back on course and win back the trust of millions of European citizens who, despite current fads and inclinations, know only too well what a thriving Europe can achieve for them. If only politicians of the right sort take the trouble to listen to them.

The EPP’s entangled issue over the Victor Orban Affair and the possibility of it having, albeit reluctantly, to eject its Hungarian element is a case in point for those of us who believe that a united array of parties and party stances to counter extremism is the only way forward also for Europe’s Socialists and Democrats. While German and other European conservatives have been accused of acting much too late, even if Orban’s Fidesz party somehow loses its affilation to the EPP, progressives of the Centre, the moderate Left and the Left can seek a new future in unison, arguably for the first time in millenial European history.

This grand alliance against hatred and division has been mooted by none else other than our own Prime Minister, certainly not new to successful electoral strategies, in his speech at the PES conference in Madrid. Dr Joseph Muscat displayed his characteristic sense of leadership by avoiding cliches that have long lost their lustre and calling a spade by its name on insisting that only a movement of progressives, more or less in the manner of the pre-2013 coalition of moderates and progressives, can look the forthcoming political storm in the eye and genuinely hope of stalling it, possibly even nipping it in the bud. Centre and Left-of-Centre leaders, socialists, democrats and other progressives were there to listen. It is now time to do something about it.

Malta has been a shining example to all of them. Our achievements have matched and often even surpassed all expectations despite much unfair and misguided internal flak inspired by petty local politics. Malta will in fact go to the polls this month ready and willing to further apply its left-wing, progressive principles to modern-day realities by a continued resort to innovation and economic growth, to more jobs and job opportunities.

In addition, the European Pillar of Social Rights, an EU commitment of twenty principles and rights to which all prospective EP candidates are naturally expected to abide by, be turned into a motivating exercise aimed at standing up for the rights of European citizens in a fast-changing world, with equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions and social protection and inclusion at its core.

The carpet may have been pulled from under Europe’s feet for the time being, but there is still the time and a place for a new beginning. Europe needs it. All EU member states need it. A shift of alliances can work the magic that volumes of traditional methods and positions have, in recent years, failed to provide. I am sure Malta will play her small part on the big wings that the Prime Minister has given her.

Robert Micallef is a Labour Candidate for the European Parliament and was a negotiator for Malta’s Presidency of the European Union