Editorial

What a difference a year-and-a-few months makes. When Lawrence Gonzi fired the starting gun on the countdown to last year's general election, the Nationalist Party - considered to be the underdog - grabbed the rug that rested under Labour's smug feet and flung them into a spin they could not recover from. The PN's campaign was incisive, direct and connected with the people. Its 2009 European Parliament election campaign has been anything but.

Labour, on the other hand, will reflect on its most pungent and cohesive campaign in recent history. Its decision to switch the focus from an election for five or six individuals in a parliament with 785 members to one where the public began to think it was voting for the next government, may not have been relevant or pretty. But it had the desired effect. The party set the agenda from day one and maintained it throughout. The PN's meek response was to follow.

The debate is not so much about if Labour will win the spoils - in terms of gaining at least three seats while five are up for grabs - as to by how much. If the polls are anything to go by, it could be by quite a lot; though Labour may have inadvertently persuaded some disgruntled Nationalist voters to go to the polling booths by turning this into a national election.

What is not in doubt is that if the (possible) sixth seat ends up going to the PN, the campaign would have been a miserable failure for Labour. It has the momentum, it has the opportunity to take advantage of a period of discontent, it has to take advantage and score goals to make it count.

Ironically, however, gaining parity in terms of European Parliament seats could also turn out to be catastrophic for the PN. Yes, the flags will come out and a few car horns will toot in triumph, but the plain fact is that the party is in need of a definitive defeat.

Only when that happens will all the people within it - saved by Dr Gonzi and perhaps by the former Labour leader in March 2008 - realise that there are more than a few superficial cracks to fix; cracks which, left unattended, will become chasms by the time of the next election. Too many within the party are out of touch with people's needs and out of their mind when it comes to the tone in which they have, or have not, addressed them.

Dr Gonzi remains the man, the only man, who is able to put that right. His integrity, commitment and the level of trust people still have in him personally, irrespective of any negative campaigns to the contrary, put him head and shoulders above his colleagues.

But his personality alone will not save the party next time. Nor should it. The colleagues who are causing the unpopularity - it should be pointed out that a few are performing very competently - need to get their act together in every sense if the PN is to stand a fighting chance.

Since the errant ones are obviously unable to fix themselves, this will only happen if Dr Gonzi grabs them by the scruff of the neck - one seat majority or no one seat majority - and lays down some unbreakable ground rules. If they do not follow them, he should seek out new blood. There is no better time than now for him to take that step.