As we prepare to take down the tinsel, return the pasturi to their boxes, and return our houses to normalcy, we face a return to where we were before the final onset of the Yuletide festivities.
Considering what this country was engaged in during the last months of the year, back to where we were means back to mounting confrontation that only the hurried, late Christmas festivities stopped us from degenerating into open confrontation maybe on the streets.
In fact, the activists have called for a new public protest today, surely marking the end of the Christmas truce. As from tomorrow, we will resume hearing testimonies from the multiple lawsuits in Court. Parliament, which went into recess far before any Christmas holidays, scared maybe by daily protests and by the sight of Freedom Square turned into a maze of crash barriers, still has until the 20th of January to resume its sittings.
In the meantime, the Labour leadership election is getting near. The two candidates battle it out with press conferences, pressing the flesh, events around the country and trying to outbid each other. The barbs are there, hardly invisible, and the audience understands each nuance and laps it up.
Then, once the new leader is elected, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is expected to resign and make way for the new leader. And, for all talk of seamless transfer of power, a new course begins.
After huge streams of words, one thing still remains unexplained to most ordinary citizens: why exactly did Dr Muscat resign? He did not lose an election, nor a vote of no confidence that we know of. Nor was he forced out by the street protests. He has been giving press briefings on his record in office, as he should, but giving a clear reason why he is standing down, almost as if this was brought about by an act of heaven about which he could do nothing.
He has been spending most of his time travelling – seeing the Pope, going to Bethlehem for Midnight Mass, then on a family holiday, in first class to the capital of bling, Dubai before jetting to London for some personal, unexplained business. The religious overtones of the first travels quickly disappeared, replaced by bling. His core group followed suit (some even anticipating it).
The man idolized in 2013 and 2017 as the champion of the working class returns to the favourite haunt of big business, which with its tacky attitude to laws, regulations and procedures produces, wherever it is to be found, threats to the rule of law.
This attitude is not restricted to Malta but can be found in many other countries as well, even within the EU. The Malta case is perhaps the more blatant, considering the distance between what was the rule (even if many times in breach) pre-2013 and now.
It thus remains to be seen if the new leadership will mean a correction of ways or just the same leadership under a different man. From the emphases being made to them, it would seem they plumb for continuity all through the line.
With Muscat out of the game, what will be the attitude of the wide spectrum of activists that keep alive the memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia? And of course that of the official Opposition? The battle for rectitude in public affairs is never-ending.
What brought Muscat down was the perception, and more than a perception, that wrong-doers were being protected just because of their relationship to the top levels. The two candidates have both said, as far as I can remember, that they will not protect wrong-doers but of course that remains to be seen.
So all in all, it is wise to foresee a diminution of tension as the country assists at the last phase of the leadership race and waits to see the new leader in action. This time, it has to be said, there is no attempt by the Opposition to influence the outcome – which is more than can be said about Labour’s interference in the PN leadership battle.
At the same time, we resolutely do not notice the dark clouds on our horizon. The economic situation is getting worrying, exacerbated by the political crisis. The construction industry, so they say, is running on empty. Tourism, despite the low cost carriers, is slipping, not helped by omni-present roadworks and now by power cuts.
But the greatest threat is that coming from neighbouring Libya where a Syrianisation is taking place with Turkey and Russia supporting opposite sides as is happening in Syria. If the attack on Tripoli takes place, expect far more refugees coming our way. The EU is completely absent in this conflict – there are some who even speak of different EU countries supporting opposite sides as well.
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