Today is Budget Day and this evening Tonio Fenech, our Finance Minister, will deliver the last Budget speech of this administration.
We have an opportunity to change before the people change us- Simon Busuttil
It is the last Budget plan before Parliament is dissolved for the general elections due next year. Its significance is therefore more pronounced.
The Sunday Times reported that this evening the minister will announce the implementation of a key electoral platform that our party made in 2008, namely the commitment to reduce the income tax rate from the maximum 35 per cent to 25 per cent for those earning up to €60,000.
I was involved in the drafting of that programme and I am delighted at this news. This commitment could not be implemented earlier because the financial crisis did not allow us to do so. This was a responsible decision.
But now that the European Commission has given our public finances a clean bill of health, here is our first opportunity to deliver this promise. So I greatly welcome Tonio Fenech’s intention to do this.
And of course, after this evening, the next challenge is to have the Budget adopted. Otherwise there is little point in announcing one in the first place.
Now as it happens, Tonio’s name has been on my mind for quite some time.
Until last week, it was Tonio Borg. And now it is Tonio Fenech.
As you know, in two days’ time I will be facing Tonio Fenech in a contest for the post of deputy leader of the Nationalist Party which was recently vacated by our newly appointed EU Commissioner, who was endorsed by an overwhelming majority in the European Parliament just last Wednesday.
On Friday, some 900 PN councillors will be carrying the responsibility of selecting one of us for this post.
It is an onerous responsibility they have to carry. For their decision could be determining for the future of the party but also for the future of the country.
On Friday our 900 councillors will decide. But in a few months’ time, the entire electorate will be deciding. So reflecting the views of the public at large will be crucial for the electoral success of our party.
There is no doubt that the PN is lagging behind the Labour Party in popularity.
All surveys conducted this year repeatedly confirmed a gap of some 12 percentage points between us. That translates into a staggering 30,000 votes that the PN must recover to win the election.
Now our party statute stipulates that an election for deputy leader must be held after each general election.
This means that the newly elected deputy leader this weekend will only serve in his post for a few months, until the general election. Then he must face re-election.
And we all know that the major challenge for the party in the next few months is the general election.
So it is clear that this week councillors must pick a deputy leader who will have to lead the party, alongside Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, to a general election.
No more and no less.
It is indeed rare for an opportunity such as this to come up for a party to renew itself before it faces an election. It gives us the opportunity to face the electorate as a party that has renewed itself right at its very leadership while at the same time guaranteeing the continuity of our successful policies that have served the people well on what matters most in their daily lives – their jobs, their children’s eduction and their family’s health.
To put it crudely, we have an opportunity to change before the people change us.
Opportunities of this kind come few and far between.
So the question that councillors must answer this Friday is stark.
Which one of the two candidates, Tonio Fenech or myself, is best-placed to help our party recover the lost votes and lead it, alongside the Prime Minister, to try and win the next election?
It is as stark as that.
Over the past weeks I have done my best – despite my absence from the island for long stretches to help Tonio Borg secure his confirmation – to reach out to as many councillors as possible and to explain to them what is at stake. I hope that by Friday, I would have reached them all.
My message to them has been simple and honest.
As party activists, your responsibility is to help the party because by helping the party you are helping our country. Your responsibility is to listen to what the people are saying and to listen to your conscience.
If after doing so, you reach the conclusion that Tonio Fenech is better placed than me to help the party win the election, then you should go ahead and vote for him.
If, on the other hand, you conclude that I am better placed to do so, then I humbly ask you for your support and for your vote.
Whichever way it goes, I am grateful to Tonio Fenech for having gone through this with me in a spirit of friendship and I am grateful to party councillors for having given me the opportunity to get to know them better.
It has been an unforgettable experience.
Now, it is really in their hands.
simon.busuttil@europarl.europa.eu
Simon Busuttil is a Nationalist MEP.