The abstention of the Nationalist Opposition on the third reading of the Civil Unions Bill will reverberate for a long time to come. Disagreement with the wishy-washy stance adopted when the group abstained is being expressed from within Nationalist quarters. The party has once more bared its soul to public viewing. The split between hard traditionalists and irresolute liberals is not nice to observe.
Yet it is there and it may manifest itself again. The Labour government has implemented most of its liberal legislative programme. But there is more to go. The position of the Opposition in what follows will not be taken seriously while the smell of the burn-out on civil union remains.
In the circumstances the Opposition leader has found himself in a snakes-and-ladders game.
He has not left a huge imprint since being elected. Swathes of his party still do not see him as the man most likely to make the required inroads in the Labour vote by the next general election.
Yet neither has he been a disaster. His quietly persuasive demeanour has its quality. It tends to make him look too simple at times, but simple he is not. He has a plan and sticks to it. He capitalises on Labour slips with gusto and that, coupled with a totally negative attitude towards the government, has roused the grassroots once again and tends to be winning back some of the swingers who left the party in the March 2013 general election.
Come May 24 and the Nationalist Party is likely to have a comparatively good result in the European Parliament elections.
Riding on abstentions on the Labour side, it will do far better than in the general election in terms of the gap between it and Labour. There is always a swing against the government of the day in the MEP elections.
This time the swing will be interpreted as a huge victory for Simon Busuttil, with his party electing three candidates for the first time since Malta joined the European Union.
It will be a success of sorts, reflecting more tactical stances against the government than a sea change in support for the two parties. Nor will it make the divisions between traditional and liberal Nationalists go away.
Anyone who truly loves the Church and wants clean politics should not seek to drag the bishops back into the political arena
The divisions will surface from time to time. Labour leader Joseph Muscat, much more wily than some expected him to be, will see to it that he tweaks the political agenda to bring about fresh embarrassing choices for the Opposition. The Opposition leader can read this prospect as well as any political analyst. He needs fresh ammunition if he is to recover from the civil union debacle and in some way outsmart Muscat. He has turned to the past to seek it out, reverting to the old Nationalist reliance on the Catholic Church, or rather the Curia.
The Opposition leader went public yesterday with open criticism of the bishops for not taking a harder attitude on the Civil Unions Bill.
He clearly wants the Curia once again to start fighting Nationalist battles. The bishops are behaving as religious leaders should in a secular state. They no longer feel, as it was the case in the Archbishop Gonzi era, that they can dictate to the people and the government.
They know the Church has grown weaker than ever before and that direct or perceived meddling in politics will not help to reverse that situation, but will make it worse.
They understand better than ever before what to give to God, and to Caesar. The bishops, therefore, do their duty. They gently remind Catholics of the teachings of the Church on key issues and leave it to them to decide without threatening hellfire and brimstone.
Much less do the bishops presume that they can dictate to those who do not choose to follow the Church’s teachings. That position is wise and correct in a secular society where choice, even regarding religious matters, is a personal affair.
Clearly that does not suit Busuttil. He needs help to try to reconstruct his party. He is seeking that help from the bishops, subtly urging them to align themselves with the traditionalist wing of the Nationalist Party to gain political advantage from some aspects of the government’s liberalising drive.
That is a sad moral and political move. Anyone who truly loves the Church and wants clean politics should not seek to drag the bishops back into the political arena.
Busuttil should be man enough to fight his own recovery battles and leave the bishops out of it.
• The tendency of the Maltese to divide is legendary. It is a relief, therefore, when we find something to unite about, to give us all a feeling of pride. Pride was in the air on Good Friday with Peppi Azzopardi’s success on Xarabank to raise so much financial aid for Puttinu Cares. National pride was counterpointed on Saturday night with the lovely Federica’s magnificent success in co-winning Rai Uno’s Ti Lascio Una Canzone show. It’s a great feeling. We need it more often.