The updated report and consequent downgrading of the Maltese economy by Standard and Poor’s is a snapshot of the Maltese economy and came at a very inconvenient time for the Government. Even so, that cannot explain or justify the ridiculous claims being made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance that the downgrade is the fault of the Labour Opposition, which voted against the Budget 2013.
The main weakness, as every worried Maltese child knows, is the gargantuan size of the public debt- Lino Spiteri
The Budget require votes of confidence. The Opposition of the day would have to be crazy or corrupt to vote in favour. In fact, it is the practice the world over for the opposition to reserve its hashest criticism of the government for the Budget debate.
That is the case in Malta as well, as the Prime Minister, a parliamentary expert, knows well enough.
The votes for 2013 did not pass through the House because a divided Government did not have all its members at its disposal. A dissatisfied Government backbencher joined the Opposition in voting against it.
That is the simple fact of the matter as Messrs Lawrence Gonzi and Tonio Fenech know well enough. They knew what was going to happen before the Budget was actually presented in Parliament. The rebellious backbencher had publicly warned them. Yet, to gain time, the Prime Minister went ahead with the Budget charade.
It serves little purpose paying good money for a major rating only to twist its findings in such an obscene and arrogant manner. The Government’s stance strongly suggests that, at this stage of the electoral campaign, the Prime Minister and leader of the Nationalist Party has lost all hope of winning the election and is prepared to resort to any dastardly method to try to win back votes he reckons have been lost to his party.
The members of the Standard and Poor’s team must be stupefied by the the Government’s interpretation of their remarks.
Such a report does not only look back – and looking back it was staring at 25 years of a Nationalist Government. It also looks forward – and looking forward the rating agency expects to be told what action the Goverment plans to take to remedy the weaknesses listed in its latest report.
The main weakness, as every worried Maltese child knows, is the gargantuan size of the public debt. It has been growing steadily throughout the Gonzi administration, and for all the time Fenech had 10 fingers in the pie since he was appointed a parliamentary secretary and then Minister of Finance.
His astonishing show of public anger was not only unfair towards the Labour Party – the Leader of the Opposition made short shrift of that theatrical show. It was also a tactical and strategic move by Fenech.
Tactically he does not want his political guilt for the downgrade to be fully understood by his colleagues and party activists. Strategically he is looking ahead beyond the election.
Being human, Fenech cannot forget the way he was humiliated in the deputy leadership race. Being also a clever man he knows there will be a different scenario when fresh leadership elections take place if that is done in the context of a Nationalist Party defeated at the polls.
Hence his vicious attacks on Labour. He probably reckons that, if the Nationalists are defeated the blame would be placed on the shoulders of Gonzi and Simon Busuttil. Instead of GonziPN, this time the party presents the two men smiling vacously into the heavens. If the PN wins, Gonzi/Busuttil will get the cudos. If the party loses, they will pay the price.
Gonzi will resign, so the first contest this time will be for the Big Apple, the leadership. It will not be a case once more of Gonzi running only against himself. Nor will it be a case of Busuttil prancing into the scene as a saviour and facing only one other contestant.
Gonzi will not contest. If Busuttil does contest he will do so as a loser. His critics will come out of the wood. He will face several other contestants who have kept their powder dry.
Fenech, though a loser at this stage, will hope he will lead the pack. He will not be able to do that if he is burdened with the blame of an eve-of-the-election downgrade due mostly to a massive public debt for which he is responsible.
He therefore makes a Herculean effort to try to shift the blame elsewhere. What better than the Labour Party?
It is a clear plot even though part of the theatre of the absurd. For one must be absurd to really believe the Opposition could ever vote with the Government on the Budget.
In 21 years of parliamentary life, which included several Budgets, I never met anyone, on either side, to have the temerity to suggest this – not even in 1996, when Labour was elected in an early election which Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami had called because he secretly knew that money had become a problem.
If the election debate can descend to these low levels so early in the game, only the Good Lord knows what lies in store for an exhausted electorate in the remaining weeks.
Once again I shall be absent for a short while. The last stage in my trek, I hope and pray.