I was asked who I thought was the preferable option in the two-man deputy leader contest, and, with hindsight, perhaps I was a little short-sighted in my reply.

Definitely Simon Busuttil, if for no other reason, because he has breathed European air- Michela Spiteri

You see, in the aftermath of the divorce debate - rightly or wrongly, justified or not – I will henceforth always associate Tonio Fenech with an acute lack of emotional intelligence. And this, not on account of his private beliefs, because he is perfectly entitled to those and no one is disputing that.

My reservations, at the time, stemmed from the way he went out of his way to jump onto the Church’s bandwagon, and in the process went about devaluing and deprecating other people’s beliefs, values and choices.

It was mission-like and I felt he had no business doing so, whatever his personal feelings on the matter. As a minister, and ultimate representative of the secular state, he ought to have curbed the temptation, no matter how strong. That is where my ‘problem’ with Fenech begins and ends.

I have no hesitation whatsoever in commending his ability to have kept us financially afloat in economically rough seas, and for that, I salute him.

So, when I was asked the Busuttil vs Fenech question, my knee-jerk response was: “Definitely Simon Busuttil, if for no other reason, because he has breathed European air”. And then I deleted that part of the analysis, because it sounded patronisingly ‘expatriate’ if you like, and pointed to an intolerant rejection of all things Maltese, which isn’t really what I meant. You see, when you write and are restricted to a word limit, you run the risk (and I do especially) of being misunderstood unless you explain every nuance and leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. I always trust that people will read between the lines and increasingly discover that they don’t.

Now, the really interesting part was that my brief analysis coincided with Tonio Borg’s debut in Europe. We had a political game of musical chairs going on. Borg, one of the Nationalist Party’s more conservative stalwarts was being asked to vacate his Maltese deputy leader seat to take a walk on the wilder side of Brussels, to make way for another deputy replacement in his stead.

The politically cool and emancipated Busuttil, was being summoned back to the rock, after an eight-year stint in the European Parliament; while the eight-year Maltese parliamentarian and hardly cool Fenech, a younger but scarcely edited version of Borg, was also vying for the post.

So you had Borg and Busutil trading places – geographically, psychologically and spiritually if you like. Borg, fresh out of Maltese Parliament and therefore still very much in touch with his politically learned hang-ups and taboos, found himself thrown in the lions’ den. Busutill who, thanks to Brussels, had long shed any political or other inhibitions his parochial and Jesuit upbringing had instilled in him suddenly found himself playing on home turf. Having never quite acquired a Maltese political skin, he may now find himself having to grow one. And then, Fenech of course – a direct descendant of Borg, displaying the same sort of repressed political behaviourism, which incidentally was being shot down in Europe, at every turn.

While Borg was busy breathing European air which does wonders for unlearning many principles and beliefs we imagined we could never live without – demonstrating the validity of the nature vs nurture debate – the contest was in full swing here.

Busuttil is the guy who is meant to appeal to people who no longer feel an affinity with New Nationalist; people who are uncomfortable with the way things are being done; people who are not content to follow the leader blindly or just because. He was apparently handpicked by Gonzi, purportedly to bring back the lost sheep.

His appeal is far-reaching – he’s the ‘nobody’ (his words) who became somebody, with the energy and stamina of a bull; a likeable enough and charismatic gentleman who is at once gentle and strong, with an unbelievably impressive work ethic.

The fact that his personal life met with some difficulty which spelled the end of his marriage makes him even more appealing and endearing to those of us who have learned the hard way that ‘till death us do part’ is all well and good, but not at the cost of killing you and everyone else in the process.

Fenech appeals to those who are content with the status quo and who feel that Busuttil is an impostor who hasn’t been there long enough, and who may be getting an unfair advantage and legs-up. Fenech has been an MP a while now and is quite conversant with the way the game is played locally. It’s a different ball-game to be sure – one I sincerely hope Busuttil never masters completely.

So yes, although I am still rooting for Busuttil, I am not entirely sure I want him there. My fear is that he will gradually lose the DNA which sets him apart from the rest. Not to mention that very rare and invaluable quality he possesses, rather elusive to Maltese men, more so Maltese politicians.

I am talking about emotional intelligence, which is perhaps best described as the ‘ability to validly reason with emotions, to accurately perceive emotions and to use emotions to enhance and assist thought’.

Busuttil’s win is a Pyrrhic victory of sorts, which will always be inextricably linked to and associated with Gonzi – if GonziPN won the last election singlehandedly, GonziPN is what is going to lose the next one.

He may have designs on the eventual leadership, although the two MPs who may want that, I notice, have steered well clear of this race, for reasons they know best. If this was a game of Scrabble, Busuttil might have thrown away his Q and Z, without cashing in on the full triple word score. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.