One need not be an expert political analyst to predict that the Labour Party led by Joseph Muscat will easily win the next general election. Indeed, I rarely remember Labour being in such a strong position and the Nationalists being so shambolic. Of course, to correctly analyse the present political situation in Malta one has to search for the real reasons leading up to it and divest oneself of the influence of political propaganda and perceptions created by the media.

Let us start with the party leaders. Whether you agree with him or totally disagree with him, the reality is that Muscat is a very efficient and capable national leader. Highly respected by European leaders and on the wider international scene, he also has a record of domestic success which is second to none.

His government has achieved enviable successes in diverse fields of administration such as justice, employment, tourism, education, culture, social policy, etc. It is true that Muscat’s government has been plagued by issues of good governance but the Labour leader has very capably weathered the storm. Still, one has to admit that there are problems of good governance which Labour needs to address immediately if the prosperity which the country is enjoying at present is to be consolidated and improved upon.

Very different is the position of Nationalist Opposition leader Simon Busuttil. To be fair, Busuttil inherited a political party reeling from a catastrophic electoral defeat. It takes time to rebuild public confidence in a party which has lost the support of so many people as the PN has in the last few years.

This having been said, I still think that Busuttil has failed as a political party leader. First of all, the years since the PN electoral defeat have been characterised by a negative approach. An opposition party is expected to be critical of the government of the day but the PN has offered little except criticism and more criticism. When it has offered constructive solutions as in the documents it published on good governance and the environment, it has also quickly become apparent that prominent members of the party themselves fall short of these guidelines and proposals in their behaviour and actions.

So can Busuttil be taken seriously when he proposes a better government for Malta under the PN? The answer is no.

There is no serious alternative to a Labour government

One important factor behind Labour’s electoral strength is also its excellent organisation as a political party. We are sometimes told by some Labourites that since the PL electoral victory, the Labour headquarters at Ħamrun has become a backwater, some even say a “cemetery”. This is very unfair on the staff of the National Labour Centre.

I was privileged to spend the last three years of my career working there and I can vouch for the fact that the Labour Party today is in such a strong position thanks to the excellent work being carried out behind the scenes by its very capable staff at Labour headquarters.  One need only mention a few people as examples of efficiency and professionalism: Gino Cauchi, the CEO who orchestrates all the work in an extremely efficient manner and is a great motivator of people, bringing out the best in them; Nigel Vella, a very gifted youth who is the PL communications coordinator and who has an astonishing grasp of modern-day politics and what is needed to relay an effective political message to ordinary people; party vice-president Louis Gatt, who leads the electoral office and who is an expert at making sure that Labour does not lose one single vote at an election due to some administrative error on the part of the party; Dominic Grech, the chairman of Fondazzjoni IDEAT who has managed to assemble a group of intellectuals who regularly present excellent proposals to be implemented as party policy.

These and many other individuals, too numerous to mention, are the hidden strength and backbone of the Labour Party. What we are seeing is a strong and efficient government ably backed by a well-organised Labour Party.

At the end of the day, however, what will be crucial at the next general election will be one single fact: many people are today better off than they were in the days of PN governments. Furthermore, very few honestly believe that they will be better off under a PN government led by Busuttil. The cards left in Busuttil’s hands at the moment are not winning cards.

You do not win elections by trying to create a public perception of the government as being totally corrupt. We have already seen this in the past. You do not win an election through a coalition with a much weaker third party.

The simple truth is that Labour is delivering and that there is no serious alternative to a Labour government.

Desmond Zammit Marmarà is a Labour Party Balzan councillor.