What it's all about

What is next Saturday's election about?

Firstly, this election, like every other, allows us to choose which government we think should lead this country during the next five years. Secondly, however, this particular election comes at a time when Malta has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to participate fully in the European project, when our citizens are so tantalisingly close to acquiring the rights that EU citizenship will confer upon them.

Let us look at these two perspectives separately. How does one gauge which of the two main parties is best suited to govern the country? One needs to look at the track record of the two, their plans for the next legislature and the credibility of their leaders.

With regard to track record I feel the choice is clear, even if one compares the present government to the short-lived 1996-1998 Labour administration (conveniently forgetting the violence-marred pre-1987 Labour administrations when Alfred Sant was the president of his party).

Unemployment had risen in the time of Dr Sant's government; the present administration has created over 14,000 jobs.

Dr Sant tied our telecommunications sector up in a complex web of stifling monopolies; we liberalised the sector, creating jobs and putting a mobile phone in nearly everybody's pocket.

Dr Sant replaced VAT with a horrible hodgepodge of taxes that nobody understood; we reintroduced VAT and re-moved the uncertainty, and although it has taken four years, even Dr Sant has admitted that it should stay.

Under Dr Sant, our utility bills shot up beyond reason; this administration found an acceptable balance between costs and social needs.

Dr Sant took the budget deficit to record heights; this administration has consistently brought it down year after year according to a serious, long-term plan.

He froze our application for EU membership; this administration breathed new life into it, and got the seal of approval of the electorate in last month's referendum.

What about future plans?

Here, too, Dr Sant's Labour does poorly. It has nothing to offer but cheap promises so gimmicky that they are offensive. Compare Dr Sant's two-month tax break to this administration's quiet, ongoing reform of the tax system that has given much larger, and most importantly, permanent, income tax reductions without shocking the economy.

Compare what will happen to the country's finances if a Labour administration both forgoes the Lm81 million from the EU and actually tries to deliver on its Lm25 million desperation tax pledge.

Compare what will happen to our environment if we abandon the present programmes to clean our seas, drinking water and air, all based on tried and tested European models, and instead suffer Dr Sant's experiments paid out of our own pockets.

The difference between the credibility of the two leaders is no less stark. On the one hand, you have a prime minister who has presided over the longest ever period of sustained growth Malta has ever seen, steered our country out of the democratic desert, and cleansed our politics of the violence that was once a regular feature of our political life.

On the other, you have a party leader who has been petty enough to repeatedly boycott the national Istrina fund-raising campaign, who repeatedly refuses to engage in debate or answer questions and who walks out on journalists who refuse to stick to his rules. A man whose very democratic credentials have been severely compromised by his failure to respect the people's verdict. A man who alternates between temper tantrums (war, war, war!) and forced cheerfulness in very bad taste (welcome to the band Nanna Olga).

If this were a normal general election, therefore, on every criterion there would be every reason to vote for a second Nationalist term.

But this is not simply a normal general election. This election coincides with a very short window of opportunity when our country can take its rightful place in Europe, when we can all ensure a bright future for ourselves and for our children.

The government did not want this election to be about the European Union; that is why it promised and delivered a referendum to be held specifically about the issue.

Dr Sant's obstinacy in refusing to respect the will of the people has ensured, however, that our membership of the European Union remains the most important issue to be decided on Saturday.

If you want our country to benefit from the funds set aside for us by the EU; if you want our country to have a say in the international decisions that affect our lives; if you want to enjoy the same rights and standards as our fellow European citizens; if you want all these things and more, then only a vote for the Nationalist Party on Saturday can ensure we achieve them.

A vote for the Nationalist Party will give you a stable government with a serious programme that will allow Malta to exploit the opportunities offered by the European Union. It will send a clear message that the politics of mindless confrontation no longer have a place in our country.

It will allow us all to grow.

Dr Borg is minister of foreign affairs