The country is in an election mode

It is true that it had taken Alfred Sant’s Administration several months to take the country to the polls when Dom Mintoff became a thorn in its side. But two wrongs do not make a right and if it were wrong then to hold the country in suspense for far too long it would be wrong now to delay the holding of an election by more time than is absolutely necessary.

After days of uncertainty, it has now been agreed between the two main parties that the debate on the motion of no confidence in the government, presented by the Labour Party’s deputy leader, would be held in four consecutive parliamentary sittings next week, starting on Monday. The vote will be taken on Thursday at noon.

It all boils down now to what Franco Debono will actually do when the time comes for Parliament to vote on the motion. He has called for the Prime Minister’s resignation and said that he would not support the government so long as Lawrence Gonzi remained at its helm.

There was a time over the past days when it appeared that the Nationalist Party was going the extra mile to make Dr Debono change his mind but it does not seem that it made any headway in its effort. The fact is that the situation appears to have gone too far now for the government to keep hoping for Dr Debono to have a change of heart, though you never know.

Whatever else the PN may come up with, and irrespective of the Prime Minister’s statement that the country is not in an election mode, the fact is that the people’s mind is now fully taken up with talk about when, not if, the election will be held.

It is useless to continue arguing that it is not in the country’s interest to hold an election at this point in time when the country should be bracing itself, as it were, for the repercussions of the financial turmoil taking place in Europe. Of course, it would have been better had Dr Debono not brought on the crisis but, once he has, the party and the country know that there is no alternative other than to go to the polls. That is, unless Dr Debono changes his mind or Dr Gonzi resigns as Prime Minister, which is quite improbable given the strong support he enjoys within the party.

Even if, hypothetically, the party were to come to a sort of a rapprochement with Dr Debono, there would still be that lingering doubt that any agreement reached with him would be ephemeral. Dr Debono has broken ranks in a way that rankles and his declarations, particularly after the Prime Minister reshuffled the Cabinet, gave the distinct impression, irrespective of his protestations to the contrary, that his political interest was one and only: to become a Cabinet minister.

Unions and employers are right in expressing concern over the impact which the political uncertainty could have on the country at a time when the national focus ought to be directed at counteracting the effects of any possible recession. It is, after all, useless to make comparisons of the political situation today with that experienced at the time of the Sant Administration or of speculating further how Dr Debono will vote in the upcoming vote of no confidence in the government.

The national interest demands that the political uncertainty is lifted sooner rather than later.