The ability of our Prime Minister to morph into a different person depending on whom he addresses or what he perceives to be the mood of the majority is uncanny.

His advisers see this as a huge advantage – clearly believing that to attempt to be everything to everyone is a quality in politicians.

You can almost imagine them rubbing their hands with glee every time they wheel out Muscat to contradict whatever he said a day or two ago, patting themselves of the back undoubtedly thinking how clever they are. It is a tactic which is shortsighted in the extreme.

Having a backbone and a set of core beliefs is fast becoming the dividing line between the PN and this Labour Government.

Think back a bit.

One minute we have Muscat the kaċċatur (hunter) urging his supporters to vote in favour of spring hunting, before quickly flipping into Muscat the pseudo-environmentalist, before flopping sideways into Muscat the kuntrattur (contractor) inaugurating high-rise buildings all over the place.

We had Muscat the Opposition leader who rallied against the interconnector project, mocking the very idea, before Muscat the Prime Minister inaugurated the project and praised the previous administration for its vision on energy policy.

We had Pushback Muscat, appeasing the farthest-right (for want of a better word) elements in his party with threats of sending just-rescued migrants back to unsafe Libya, before suddenly becoming Muscat the Compassionate (a very welcome change I hasten to add) shamelessly posing for cynical photos when he thought the mood changed.

We had Muscat the transparent, who addressed mass meeting after mass meeting promising accountability before changing into Muscat the opaque, refusing to publish contracts worth millions of public funds and conducting government business from his gmail account.

You can almost imagine them rubbing their hands with glee every time they wheel out Muscat to contradict whatever he said a day or two ago

We had Muscat the activist who used to urge you to take to the streets in protest, before Muscat the benevolent called press conferences to grant everyone a whole 0.58c in a cost-of-living adjustment.

We had Partnership Muscat, who warned of the evils of the European Union for years, before becoming European Muscat, promising to make Malta the envy of the rest of the EU.

We had Muscat the negative, who constantly rallied against the concept of voluntary burden-sharing on migration when in Opposition, only to sell himself as Muscat the positive when he accepted the very same thing as Prime Minister.

We had Muscat the meritocratic (remember that?) who promised to work with everyone irrespective of political belief, before morphing into Dark Red Muscat, carefully appointing his hand-picked followers and placing them on every board imaginable.

We had Muscat the honest who promised to resign if his power station was not ready within 24 months, before becoming wryly Muscat wriggling out of a commitment that could not have been more iron-clad.

We had Muscat the supposed liberal champion before becoming Muscat the lonely friend of dubious regimes around the world, trying to turn a quick deal before coming home to the masses to announce yet another redacted contract with some country or company or other.

We have Muscat the socialist who promises to uphold traditional left-wing values, before right-wing Muscat takes over to sell our passports to the highest bidder in what has been described as ‘market-economics gone mad’.

It is all a bit Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The sad thing is that I could go on and on and on. It is no wonder that trust in politics and politicians is at an all-time low.

The one constant has been that, for more than two years, he has been Teflon Muscat relying on spin, scapegoats, sacrificial lambs, carefully timed leaks and purely coincidental scandals (that just happen to pop up at exactly the right time) to prop himself up.

But he is beginning to realise that spin and Facebook ‘likes’ will only get you so far in government. You cannot fool all the people all the time.

The first cracks in Muscat’s armour have appeared. The mask is slowly slipping away and people are beginning to realise what lies beneath. The PN’s result in the local council elections has shown that the gap has started to close. People are clearly getting tired of having to rely on ministers’ moods instead of clear, enforceable rights.

Power for power’s sake means little when you stand for nothing. Principle and backbone still have a place in politics, irrespective of electoral success, whatever Muscat’s advisers may think. And that’s the alternative the PN with Simon Busuttil is offering.

Twitter: @RobertaMetsola

Roberta Metsola is an MEP for the Nationalist Party and its shadow minister for European and foreign affairs.