Members of the political class, particularly the leaders of the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, and also of Alternattiva Demokratika, will be biting their nails this morning as they wait for the results of the European Parliament contest to trickle in. The first big number will be the first preferences tally, which will show who won the contest and by how much, and will also indicate, though not definitely so in view of transfer voting, how the seats are to be allocated.
Individual candidates vying for the third seats will be on tenterhooks throughout the day, possibly into tomorrow. All this will be a nerve-crunching exercise following one of fiercest electoral battles ever conducted in Malta.
The political leaders may well be priding themselves on how much effort they put into pushing to the hilt their objective of winning according to their terms. I wonder when they will pause to realise that they are not quite in tune with the electorate.
Voters I have been speaking to from both sides of the main political spectrum are fed up. They could not wait for the electioneering to be over. As a general comment they dislike being jostled so much towards particular ballot boxes. More than that, they are disgusted with having so much politics thrust down their throats.
Not a few told me that they switched off the Wednesday evening debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on TVM. It was more of the same. The same being not just what has been spooned out these past few weeks in the EP campaign. The same is politics itself.
This particular campaign, more than one individual said to me, was run as if it was the general election campaign all over again, not a vote regarding the distant European Parliament, which is true. The European Parliament and the European Union itself barely featured in the campaign. I do not believe they got a mention on Wednesday night.
The issue was not Europe, but Malta in the jaundiced view of each particular leadership. And this at a time when it is more important than ever to follow what European Union we are part of. It is a political and broad economic union which is veering very rapidly towards extreme views.
The eventual results covering the whole of the European Parliament are confidently expected to see a sea change in the composition of the institution. Groupings of both the extreme left and the extreme right are expected to have made very substantial inroads into representation, inroads which, if repeated at a national level, could bode ill for national and European stability.
The European Parliament and the European Union itself barely featured in the campaign
Our MEP representatives, and indeed the government and the Opposition combined, can do very little to help the EU and its Parliament avoid this very dangerous trend. But at least they should demonstrate they are aware of it and that they will be ready to fight it whenever and wherever they can. That is what democratic membership of the EP should be all about.
Instead, the local candidates, who are so anxious about the EP result, spent most of their time – all of it, generally speaking – obsessed with local politics. And hang Europe and its prospects.
The EP has become another platform where to take the partisan struggle, as if it is not given enough time in Malta and as if it is not in Malta where it has to be decided.
That is contributing to a developing threat to democracy. A properly working democracy which no longer has to fight the shackles of colonialism or feudalism requires an informed membership. A membership able to interest itself and follow the clash and contrast of alternative ideas. A membership which is not alienated by bread and circus, but which digs deep into what is – and what is not – going on, how and why.
In this regard we are lucky that at general election time the vast majority participates in the voting, in taking decisions on how it should be governed. But, does it do so on an informed basis? The answer has been ‘no’ for a long time. I very much fear that the ‘no’ is becoming more emphatic.
People may go out to vote, or vote by deliberately staying away, as some did yesterday. But they are sick and tired of too much politics. We have a political regimen unlike that of anywhere in the world we tend to be familiar with.
Reversing the tune ‘Never on Sunday’, and rather than seeing Sunday as a day of rest, the political leaders make Sunday a ‘must’ occasion. They visit one party club or another from which to sermonise tales of old, which the media dutifully report irrespective of the way they lack news value, since they tend to consist of tedious repetition.
The print media in particular then focus on what was said on Sunday for the rest of the week, while also carrying reports of the debates going on in Parliament. These debates, at least, often refer to new measures, or to amendments of older ones. Even if laced with repetitive political rhetoric, they can be of interest. Yet they are very often buried in the dust raised by the Sunday sermons.
The fact is that there is too much politics. The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition of the day devalue themselves by being in so common supply. Supply should reflect demand or, according to Say’s law, create it.
But very often it just isn’t there other than for fanatical grass roots, complemented by MPs and hopeful candidates eager for a photo opportunity as they look adoringly at their leaders.
The outcome is not simply too much politics, but bad politics which does not give rise to and fuel interesting discussion. Democracy could do with better examples and inputs.