Parliament is set to convene on Saturday, the first time after the election which solidified the Labour Party’s grip on the nation with a record majority, the third in a row.

MPs will be wearing their best suits and we will see a fashion parade – hats and all – by the ladies as the MPs will take their oath of office.

It will be a long ceremony, probably the longest, as we have never had so many representatives – a staggering 79, largely thanks to the additional 12 women MPs who were granted the title of “honourable” via the gender-corrective mechanism that was introduced from the last election.

President George Vella will deliver a speech in what is known as the State opening of Parliament, during which he will be outlining the way forward. He will touch on the most sensitive issues, the ones dear to us all, mentioning the need for more unity and a House that debates ideas and is not used for personal attacks.

That will be the ceremonial start to the term, with Anglu Farrugia entering his third as Speaker of the House, the third highest position of the land after the President and Prime Minister.

Following that, Parliament will convene to kick-off its procedures of enacting laws aimed to improve the general well-being of the citizens and tighten the noose against those who misbehave. Government will be putting forward laws that serve to implement the electoral programme. Other needs will crop up over the course of the legislature. At the start of the last one, who would have thought that Parliament would have devoted so much time to the Covid-19 pandemic?

Laws which had been presented in the past legislature – but which were not enacted before the dissolution of Parliament – will have to be presented again, if government still wants to proceed with them. There will be others which will be submitted with amendments, hopefully to make them better.

The several committees, which are part of the parliamentary structure, will have to be recomposed, with new members, and will decide whether issues which were started in the past term will be resumed, restarted or simply shelved. In the past term, we saw how so much time was wasted in some of these committees. We expect better use of these committees in this term.

Prime Minister Robert Abela (the PL general conference is set to confirm him as party leader today) and Opposition Leader Bernard Grech (he is the sole contender for the post of PN leader, with the party also likely to confirm him at the helm in the coming weeks) both carry great responsibility in the way our Parliament will work in the coming five years.

Both will have to set the example to the other MPs with the way they speak, debate and argue. Political bantering is to be expected and both will use opportunities that come their way to take political digs at their opponents. But both must always keep in mind that they should always show respect to the other side. Clashes of ideas are important for the country to progress; other types of clashes are not welcome at all.

All other MPs, of course, must also adhere to this concept. The country needs both the government and the opposition, and it is therefore imperative that the duties of the two sides are carried out to the best of the respective abilities. Government is there to lead the country, the Opposition is there to criticise constructively and both roles must function, and function well, for the House to do its job properly.

Few people seem to realise that many of the laws that are discussed in Parliament are passed unanimously. Then there are issues which create controversy and it is here that the two sides of the House must show maturity in the debate. Government should not be afraid to take on ideas from the Opposition if these serve to make the law better. And the Opposition should not be afraid of accepting situations in which government comes up with the better move.

Hundreds of parliamentary questions are presented in five years. Even here, MPs must use this privilege properly. There have been situations when frivolous questions were put forward. Keeping government in check is one thing; asking questions to obtain information of little relevance (and waste the time of government employees paid by taxpayers’ money) is another.

We also look forward to having what is known as the PM’s question time, an idea that was floated some years back but which was never implemented.

Five years seem a long time, but they will pass quickly. Whether Malta will be a better place in 2027 depends very much on what Parliament will be doing in these five years.