The people have spoken. Again. Distinctly and decisively.
They handed down a verdict that, in an electorate where most usually vote on party lines, was astonishing in the rumble it created: the Nationalist Party on Saturday scored a repetition of the huge 1998 electoral lead over the Labour Party.
The reverberating thought must be that after almost five years of not spectacular Nationalist administration, the Labour Party failed signally to make the heavy inroads into Nationalist support which it needed if it were to take the government.
The general election result did not match the spectacular outcome of the March 8 membership referendum, but the margin separating the two parties is unequivocal in the message it sends, and was recognised as such by Labour leader Alfred Sant.
He told Super One radio: "It appears that the majority of the people have decided that where Malta-EU relations are concerned, the PN's policy is the one which interested them most."
And as the prime minister told rapturous listeners in Pietà, glowing in the knowledge that he had the country solidly behind him in his unbending aim of taking Malta into Europe: "Malta has a new spring ahead of her."
He had spoken of that on the hustings - and what an outstanding metaphor that was - but he cannot but have had some nagging doubt as to whether he could pull it off.
The doubt dissipated yesterday early - by 11 a.m., which for Malta is very early indeed in an election, where vote counting is done manually, there were indications already that the Nationalist Party was going to notch another victory at the polls. Only the extent of that victory was not yet clear cut.
One factor, and one factor only, could have had the overwhelming influence which could give such a result to the Nationalist Party on Saturday: Europe.
For the government the EU came also to represent the ticket for another spell at running the country. The EU apart, the Nationalist Party's tenure of government since 1998 was lacklustre, made so probably because all the government's energies were highly concentrated on membership, which the government sees as the way ahead for Malta.
For the Labour Party Europe was an issue which heaped catastrophe on it, a catastrophe which the party willed on itself. Labour lost the membership referendum, and in just over one month, the general election, both fought over the EU.
The drubbing the Labour Party again received on Saturday was astonishing because it reflected again the depth of the party's miscalculations of the electorate's mood. Its relentless scaremongering failed to prevent the country from taking up the European challenge.
There were no huge water and electricity bills to militate against Labour this time round. Dom Mintoff was urging a Labour vote, not accusing Labour of losing its bearing, or excoriating it publicly. And Alfred Sant had promised many sweeteners, including a two-month income tax holiday.
Labour must now conduct a post mortem. Why did its strategy on Europe misfire so wildly? If, as Dr Sant repeatedly said, the government had one thing in mind only, which was to take Malta into Europe, and was neglecting everything else, did Labour's unremitting anti-membership crusade create the opposite impression: that Labour's only preoccupation was to keep Malta out of the European Union?
Did Labour's boycott of some media help? Did Dr Sant's treatment of the media in general convey a negative image of the Labour Party? What effect did Dr Sant's unsavoury outspokenness about EU representatives have? What influence did Labour's widely unacceptable interpretation of the membership referendum result have on its electoral fortunes? Would it have been better, after the referendum, to have accepted the people's will? How would that have been taken by the electorate - as opportunistic, perhaps?
There was another camp that was bitterly disappointed yesterday - the hardworking Alternattiva Demokratika. They are seen by some as rather idealistic, a view which will have been strengthened after the prime minister's declaration that AD would have been offered a seat by co-option if they did not contest the election, so as not to split the pro-EU vote.
AD turned that offer down. If they had not they would probably have portrayed themselves as being susceptible to influence. By not accepting the promised seat, the retort was: "So, what more do they expect!".
They should not lose heart. Politics is often dirty, as we all know - not intrinsically, but made so by the players.
Dr Fenech Adami will now probably bow out of politics, justifiably purring contentedly that he has disposed of three Labour prime ministers in his tenure of the party leadership. And elated that he it was who introduced local government here, and then went on to take Malta into the European Union. It is an enviable legacy that will be hardly possible to match.
Come next election, a new, younger face will probably be leading the party. It will be his task to rejuvenate it. And to sweeten the initial, perhaps difficult and long-running problems of EU membership. The challenge will be to make the expected benefits of membership more than enough to counter the problems.