The 'Gonzipn' strategy

One year on, Lawrence Gonzi may brush aside the importance of the electoral motif Gonzipn but its implications for the political landscape have been more far reaching than the Prime Minister cares to admit.

On Friday, Dr Gonzi told The Times that every general election was a contest between leaders. He said Gonzipn was no different as a strategy to that adopted when Eddie Fenech Adami was PN leader or even when Alfred Sant captained the Labour Party.

However, Gonzipn was more than just an elevation of the leader. It was more like a Christian marriage where two individuals become one. It was an electoral strategy that hinged solely on the leader's personality. Some critics said it ruthlessly sidelined the old-timers within the PN fold amid appeals to the electorate to vote for change within the confines of the party.

However unsavoury the strategy may have been for some PN candidates, it was necessitated by the fact that Dr Gonzi consistently remained more popular than his own party in opinion polls.

In their post-election analysis (The Sunday Times - March 16, 2008) Lawrence Zammit and Richard Cachia Caruana revealed that one of the main reasons the election swayed in the PN's favour was due to his "successful meetings" with thousands of disgruntled Nationalist voters towards the end of the campaign.

This admission confirms the strength of his personality, which was helped in no small way by the constant presence of his wife Kate.

The Nationalists won the election, even if by a whisker, despite being written off by many pundits. Many still believe that a PN government offers consistency and stability. It has made a success of EU membership, and the introduction of the euro last year crowned Dr Gonzi's success as finance minister. But Gonzipn also had casualties that throughout the past year have continued to perturb the government.

Soon after the administration slowly settled in, the perception among some was that Dr Gonzi faded into the background allowing his two heavyweight ministers, Austin Gatt and John Dalli, to take centre stage amid the usual claims of arrogance.

Private banter between PN backbenchers even referred to the Cabinet as a Dolce Gabbana (D&G) cabinet, with obvious reference to Dalli and Gatt.

However, when asked about these claims, Dr Gatt had told The Sunday Times: "There's only one Prime Minister - and a very good one at that. If people think that I go into a major project without first having cleared it with the Prime Minister they don't know how politics works."

Last Friday, Dr Gonzi appeared in front of the media in a confident and buoyant mood. He insisted that he was present throughout the reforms initiated in various sectors of the economy. He also said that no other government had undertaken as many reforms in one go within a single year.

Even if the Prime Minister quietly managed the backroom, having a hand in the reforms initiated during the first year of his second administration, there is little evidence to suggest he managed to quell the simmering discontent on his backbench.

Internal party wounds festered. Disgruntled backbenchers and former ministers voiced their dissent on policy decisions and other mundane issues.

From Ninu Zammit's opposition to the St John's Co-Cathedral museum proposal to Edwin Vassallo's criticism of Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi's request for people to report abuse as Big Brother government; from Robert Arrigo's not-so-private disapproval at being left out of Cabinet to Simon Busuttil's opposition to George Abela's nomination as president; from Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's position on illegal immigration that is disconnected from government policy to Jesmond Mugliett's grudge at being informed by SMS of being left out of Cabinet, Dr Gonzi has had his fair share to deal with.

And all this happened in a year characterised by a very difficult economic scenario and with the Labour Party refusing to enter into a pairing agreement in Parliament.

Dr Gonzi's reply to whether he felt comfortable with Dr Pullicino Orlando on his backbench was telling of the uneasy situation he faces in the foreseeable future.

"Jeffrey is full of energy and is passionate about everything he gets involved in. We need people like him in the parliamentary group," Dr Gonzi said.

It may have been Dr Gonzi's diplomatic way of brushing aside the notion of dissent within his own party.

In 1994, the party had even put Karl Marx alongside other prominent philosophers and social scientists on the front cover of its general council document.

Dr Gonzi may not have a Marx on his backbench but it is going to take a lot of charisma to manoeuvre between dealing with national reforms and handling internal disgruntlement.

The last Prime Minister to have walked this tight rope was Alfred Sant in 1998. He failed to make it to the other side with disastrous consequences.

Even if Dr Gonzi has proved to be a better tight rope walker than Dr Sant he can only hope that the magic created by Gonzipn will last throughout the legislature.