It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles Dickens of the French Revolution. In our topsy-turvy politics our conservative government may be about to embark on a series of reforms which could border on the revolutionary.

Despite the superb cohesion of the pensioners' lobby, their issue was sidelined while Malta went through EU Referendum I and EU Referendum II in rapid succession. Now that it's all over, Finance Minister John Dalli is rarin' to go on pension reform. Things may turn out better than if the pensions issue had been turned into an electoral ragball. Or they may not.

I would not be in the least surprised if the government did something serious about rent law reform also. It has dithered for decades and the balloon is about to go up on its own unless something tangible starts to get done about it. For starters, the government could scrap the idea that leases are inherited. It could happen next week if Government found the energy to snap its fingers.

It would signal a willingness to take the bull by the horns and deal with a problem that is central to our economy and our ecology: the beginning of the end of half a century of social injustice and economic folly. Slamming the Armier squatters would also be a sure sign of change. Perhaps the government will and perhaps it won't.

With the country's attention turned onto the Malta Labour Party leadership non-contest, few people have stopped to ponder what it will mean to have the Nationalist Party (PN) in government for the next five years. OK, the EU membership issue is in the bag. Now what?

By its own party secretary's admission, the PN has come to power thanks to the adamant rejection of all things EU by the Malta Labour Party. Joe Saliba claimed that 8,000 Labourites voted for the PN. (How does he know?)

Adding Alternattiva Demokratika voters and those who decided to forgive the prime minister after all, does the PN have a majority of its own? The government didn't win; the Opposition lost.

Will this mean that a traditionally pusillanimous PN becomes more itself or will it decide that the end is near and that it must go down with its guns blazing? Twenty years (less 22 months) in government is an absurdly long time to be there and some reasonable souls in the PN may decide that it would be indecent to ask for 25 in 2008.

Optimists can hope for a new shape of PN government, one that can get a firm grip on the raging zealots at Id-Dar Centrali and send them packing. Perhaps we may see the day when a PN government gains insight on the humiliation of being in power and being impotent to address pressing issues.

Pehaps it will see the arrogance of its sponsors and the menace of its zealots. Can the PN be the best government we ever had by deciding to lose the next election?

John Dalli seems to have chosen good government over success at the polls in 2008. Bully for him. Unfortunately that swallow will not make a spring and it is probably too much to ask to expect old habits to die. The PN is an institution and, like every other, guards its own survival over every other consideration. If he goes too fast Mr Dalli may lose out long before 2008.

What is more likely is that the economic power networks that have consolidated their grip over the PN in a decade and a half of incestuous intercourse will prevent the promised spring. We shall see. The signs will come soon.

Are we going to persist in the three golf course folly? Will Qala become an appendix to a yacht marina? Will we find another St Angelo to turn into an abomination? Will politicians continue to go with the flow - of money?

It's a bit like the MLP speaking of animal rights and defending hunters: you can't gain credibility if you lose consistency. If the PN wants to be the best government we ever had, it has to turn on the hand that has fed it and tell its sponsors to back off and let it be serious in its dying days. If not, we are going to have another PN PM begging forgiveness in 2008 and being double damned instead.

Does the PN have such ambitions? As a party with majoritarian ambitions this is the best chance it will ever have to escape the constraints of its natural requirements. It can plan to lose and be superb. Or it can plan to win - and lose now and later.

The MLP will determine the issue. Our future is being written by the MLP party delegates who alone must determine their party's future and consequently the range of action of the PN. Will they allow the PN to plan to lose safely in 2008?

More of the same thing from the MLP will mean more of the same from the PN. No reform, no revolution, no change. The MLP can make the PN desperate and leave us all in the grips of a government afraid to lose and knowing it will. The power network will close in for the kill, inviting politicians to take out insurance for the winter that is about to befall them. In that case it will be the worst of times.

Will the MLP only plan to win or will it plan for the PN to lose in safety? It may win anyway. Will it allow us all to win also? The first sign will be an MLP willingness to speak of electoral reform beyond the end of gerrymandered electoral districts. If it fails, nothing changes. If it succeeds a new spring is assured for all Maltese.

Dr Vassallo is chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green Party.

www.alternattiva.org.mt