Time after the morning after the war

So what happens now? A six-year old child, nonplussed by the rising din of car horns outside as noon crept in yesterday morning, asked his mother: "Has the war ended?" It is unlikely that there will be a recurrence in our lifetime of the great election war of 2003. Future general election campaigns may concentrate, among other things, on the effect of being in the EU. They will not be about membership as an article of faith.

Saturday's victory for the Nationalist side, the certainty that Malta will join the EU, is yesterday's story. What lies in our coming tomorrow's to this morning after? In Iraq, where historians say the first civilisation was born, the Anglo-American axis have won the three-week war. The immediate result is to be bedlam. In Malta, which we all say is civilised beyond comparison, there will be no looting of houses, of palaces, of museums. But will we continue to loot sense, driving ourselves senseless? The first signs are that will not necessarily be the case.

Eddie Fenech Adami, in his first address from his party HQ in Pietá, was statesmanlike. He was sober and sombre. He distanced himself from the euphoric triumphalism of those around him, and in the streets. The Nationalist leader and reinstated prime minister spoke wisely, calling for unity out of the expressed diversity. Without flying into high rhetoric, which would have betrayed insincerity, he appealed for calm, for restraint, for cooperation to build a one-nation future. The careful phrasing was necessary.

It is essential that it becomes a mission statement. It is imperative that Prime Minster Fenech Adami puts it into practice. His majority over the Labour Party contains a definite element of people who do not want the Nationalists as such. The clearest example is that of persons who were looking at Alternattiva Demokratika more keenly than hitherto, feeling that there is a need for a serious third party to represent in the House those who are tired of the bipolar divide between the PN and the MLP. Symbolised in the charismatic, warm, and clearly highly intelligent person of Harry Vassallo, AD was becoming such an alternative, but - driven by commitment to the goal of EU membership - its collective leadership put party interest second.

Another example, already identified publicly by deep-thinking analytical individuals in the aftermath of the MLP's defeat, is that of Labourites who reluctantly voted Nationalist to ensure Malta joins the EU in May 2004. Dr Fenech Adami's new administration, should it sail smugly and arrogantly into the future, stuffing the public sector with its acolytes and - other than for token gestures, easy sops to Cerberus - shunning able Labour-leaning persons, will drive the country into a wall and deepen existing division. The electorate, including many disenchanted Nationalists, was not calling for an encore of the performance of the past 54 months on Saturday.

On the Labour side, early concession of defeat by the Labour leadership was correct and proper. Alfred Sant was short, to the point, and dignified in acknowledging that the Nationalists had achieved an absolute majority, and in saying that the MLP would recognise the result, while remaining a strong party committed to its root beliefs. It is to be seen whether that sense of realism as well as responsible recognition of reality will let progress towards EU membership take place, or whether constitutional battles will rule the months ahead.

For both parties the fateful general election of 2003 is already history. Only its lessons remain to be digested. Early signs are not enough. Both parties face a time of change. How they get through and what they do in that time is more important than the story written in the urns on Saturday. Like the child asked his mother in innocence: Has the war ended? It remains to be seen...