Taking the country for a ride?

Franco Debono precipitated the political crisis we are facing but has to date failed to resolve it. He was presented with a clear opportunity to do so last Thursday but decided not to carry out, for the time being at least, his threat to bring down the government.

Since the Cabinet reshuffle was announced at the beginning of the year, Dr Debono has said he has no confidence in the government, that the Prime Minister or those who advise him should resign andthat an election should be called as soon as possible.

So, what happened to Dr Debono last Thursday? He was presented with the chance by the Labour opposition to turn his words into action and yet baulked at the prospect. The question is, why?

There are two schools of thought: One is that he loves the Nationalist Party too much to bring it down and that he wanted to offer the Prime Minister a lifeline so that an internal resolution to the crisis could be reached.

The second is that he did it to suit his own needs, because he knew that bringing the government down would take him with it and he was not quite willing to bite that particular bullet at this moment in time.

People will make up their own minds, though the most likely reality is that a combination of the two factors are at play.

So, what is the way forward? Will the Nationalist MP continue to give the impression that a solution is possible while in the meantime taking pot-shots at the administration? Or can the gap between the rebel MP and the Prime Minister, as unlikely as it seems, actually be bridged?

Time will tell, but there is an ancillary but no less important question: how long can the government realistically go on in such an unstable manner?

Days for sure, some weeks perhaps, but definitely not for months. If Dr Debono loves his country, as he said he did in Parliament, he will not allow it to continue and therefore settle it one way or the other. His actions must speak louder than his very noble-sounding words.

There is no escaping the fact that last Thursday’s vote left us with an inconclusive result.

The motion of no confidence moved by the opposition – which this newspaper had counselled against – failed, but within a highly unsatisfactory scenario of the Speaker being forced to use a casting vote.

The Prime Minister said in the wake of this – quite unwisely in a press statement where he declined to take questions – that he would take initiatives in the coming days to ensure the Nationalist Party was fully behind the government.

This would only have substantive significance if Dr Debono was somehow brought back on board with a guarantee of permanency. Malta cannot have a limping government for the remainder of what is supposed to be the natural term of the legislature.

Moreover, few people will forgive the Nationalist Party for forcing such a situation and the Prime Minister must not make the mistake of needlessly procrastinating irrespective of what the legal niceties may be.

This pantomime, this uncertainty, must come to an end and it must come to an end soon in order to avoid damaging the country. This means either that Dr Debono and the PN settle their differences within a very short timeframe, or that an election is called.

The clock can only tick for so long before the bomb explodes.