The European Parliament election results across the Continent have created an incredibly varied political scenario that will take time to have it jigsaw-puzzled into a properly-functioning assembly. Clashes of ideology and personality intertwine with the political oddities that surfaced immediately after the first exit polls had lit up the media headlines. All said and then, however, it really boils down to one word: leadership.
Electorates everywhere have been changing fast during the past decade and Sunday’s results were a reflection of that very reality. People need leadership to help them traverse from one direction to another, to fathom the complexities of issues that come up, such as immigration and changing economic trends, and to be guided into forming an opinion that would eventually be expressed at the ballot box.
Leadership is the apex of realpolitik and this was substantially demonstrated in the 2019 European Parliament elections in all ideological sectors, regardless of the many shifts in fortunes and aspirations of the manifold parties and movements that took part. Yes, populism, for example, has made the expected headway, but it would not have done so without its headline-winning stalwarts. It is a cruel realisation for many, but a truth that really cannot be ignored.
Issues do drive elections of whichever kind andof whichever country and institution, but they need leaders to ride them, to harness them and to get them focussed into reaching those who really matter - people who share the same desires and ambitions, whetheror not that happens to be right or wrong in your own personal reckoning. Democracy works that way, hence the ideological cycle that inevitably is part of a generational sequence that has marked civilization since its very inception.
Where there has been good leadership, there have been positive results. In Malta this is exceptionally true as Labour’s massive win on May 25 amply showed. A vast majority of Maltese had had enough of the locally-instigated, anti-Malta tirades within some of the European institutions and the election result was a slap in the face of the party that had allowed it to happen. While two of the three perpetrators who had chosen to put at risk thousands of Maltese jobs have been able to retain their seat, it is an open secret it is only thanks to the great divide that their party is evidently caught in that may have saved their skin.
It will be interesting to see how the Opposition leadership reacts should the same old antics be re-taken up by the Casa-Metsola duo, now obviously having to ply their gruesome trade in the shadow of the four elected Labour MEPs. Will they be asked to toe a new party line, in the sense that Malta and the Maltese no longer have to be victims of their personal and partisan ambitions, or will they persist in their anti-Malta campaign to the incredulous amusement of other national delegations which unfailingly unite whenever an issue anywhere within the European Union threatens their national interest?
But perhaps, the saddest and cruellest message which the PN electorate sent, is not only the approval of two undeserving representatives - and I say this with the utmost responsibility of the person who sadly and angrily personally witnessed Casa’s and Metsola’s continuous bashing of their own country at every occasion in the EP , as well as their hobnobbing with the likes of anti-Malta Ana Gomes, Macovei and Gielgold – is the fact that, in the PN, there is no place for new faces, for new blood, for fresh ideas and approaches. Anybody with the right and objective mindand with the real interest of the PN at heart, should know howserious thisis !
The PN presented a number of very valid candidates, who would have been a superb representative of their Party, without the personal and partisan interest which drives the two incumbent MEPs. I admire David Stellini who minced no words in stating the reasons as to why he is resigning from the national Parliament. He would have been a valid representative given his experience in Brussels, his qualifications and the moderate approach at things. The same can be said of a couple of other PN candidates.The solid wall of the old guard, protecting ‘their’ candidates presented and awesome resistance to the new and the moderate.
Evidently, the PN electorate – at least those who ventured out to vote- want the ‘status quo’. And ‘ status quo’ in the opposition benches they will have for many years to come unless they pull their heads firmly from the sand and realise that being highjacked by an expired group of people , who think that they have the divine right to rule over these islands, is not the new way of doing things. Nor is it the way forward for any political party who wants to offer the country a valid alternategovernment – something that any democracy needs. Unfortunately, there are too many ostriches, and too many walls in the current PN for his to happen !
Joseph Muscat’s leadership offered Malta her much-needed guidance at a time when all the forces of darkness and hatred were building up all over Europe as populist, racist and nationalistic agendas came to the fore. His heart-on-my-sleeve approach no doubt fuelled the EP electoral campaign and navigated the Maltese electorate towards the result that is one of the clearest and most emphatic among the 28 member states.
His appeal for a more united Maltese group of MEPs resonates within that very same result delivered by the people for the people. To ignore the message that has been so overwhelmingly conveyed by the Maltese electorate would be tantamount to yet another display of arrogance. Both Labour and Nationalist voters, in the latter’s case particularly those who preferred to stay home rather than cast their vote, rightly expect Malta’s contingent of six to revert back to being able, ready and willing to take a united stand against the onslought from the much larger representations intent on imposing their largerobjectives with regard to issues that have so far been rightly entrusted to national competence.
Other successful leaderships – Pedro Sanchez in Spain, Farage in the UK, and Salvini in Italy, among others – have now taken Europe to new challenges, to new formulations and to new groupings which will also give the European Parliament a completely new look. The major political shift that has taken place with the traditional centre-left and centre-right parties being edged out by populist, environmentalist and far-right parties, is now a sombre reality that needs to be dealt with at all levels of European politics - although pro-EU parties have still managed to procure around two-thirds of the 751-seat legislature that sits in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Malta offers a unique example. Joseph Muscat’s positivity is a shining example, unlimited by neither territorial nor demographic size. Economic well-being, a genuine interest in upgrading social mobility, creativity and innovation have been and continue to be the ingredients of his success. It would be daft to think the real Europe has not noticed that…. And it would be daft for any Maltese MEP to try and undermine this fact and tarnish the image of our country in the European fora.
We will be watching!