In life, we are called to make many choices. Some trivial, such as what we are going to wear or eat today. Others far more important, such as what career to choose or who to spend the rest of our lives with.

Next month we will be called to make another of those important choices. Which party, or rather which style of government, do we want for our country and ourselves.

Being a Mediterranean people, we tend to get overexcited and hot under the collar over things other nationalities would not lose a minute’s sleep over. People of the same parish are split by their allegiance to different band clubs; the country holds its breath when certain football teams of foreign nations play each other; and during election time the normal processes of a modern country grind to a halt.

Perhaps because I spent most of my early life in England, I always found the latter particularly curious; always stood back and watched from a distance. I listened to the arguments, weighed the options, did my duty and voted. The reactions of the victorious or the vanquished supporters when the result came out always seemed over the top to me. After all, we were all going to wake up the next day with the same problems, same illnesses, same hopes and dreams as the day before. We went to work, got stuck in the same ever-increasing traffic jams and eventually went to sleep again. The world did not end.

But this time I feel it is different.

I feel that our very democracy is in danger. Even ignoring the latest scandals and revelations that have rocked the Labour party and government to their core, our institutions, the very ones we rely on to safeguard our safety and freedom, have in the most insidious manner had their authority and independence gradually eroded and their influence reduced. The police, the judiciary, the Planning Authority, the Malta Financial Services Authority… the list goes on. Without the protection of these strong and functional institutions, as they were originally conceived to be, we are utterly exposed to the whims and vagaries of whoever is in government.

For the first time since independence, there is a realistic chance that a third party will earn a seat or seats in coalition with the ruling party

So we now have a choice to make.

We can choose a government that, despite some decent work in various areas which did indeed need changing, is sullied by those few at the top of the chain of command whose very reason for ruling seems to be to enrich themselves to the detriment of the people, and to hell with the consequences.

We can choose a leadership willing to throw Malta into the whirlwind of a snap election in the middle of holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union in a desperate attempt to cling onto power and delay the course of justice by the same institutions it has weakened.

We can choose a prime minister happy to sell most of our precious assets to foreign powers in disadvantageous deals that beggar belief.

A government that lauds itself for balancing the books through the sale of these irreplaceable assets.

A government that sells our citizenship to the rich in a scheme that is now suspected to have been used to channel funds to personal offshore accounts.

A government where capital investment, investment in our and our children’s future, is at an all-time low.

A government that, despite our apparent economic success has left 24,000 families needing food aid.

Or, you can choose a coalition government, which by its very nature promises that checks and balances will be restored not only outside Parliament but also within.

For the first time since independence, there is a realistic chance that a third party will earn a seat or seats in coalition with the ruling party. This has enormous implications. It will do away with the revolving door politics we are used to. The politics of us and them; of red and blue and a touch of green, and never shall they mix; of the advantaged and the disadvantaged, depending on which colour you support.

It will mean that a major party will never again be able to act alone and make hay while the sun shines for itself and its cronies.

It will mean a far broader section of the population, and their aspirations and dreams will be given a voice in government.

It will mean that the floating voter, that person who does  not quite feel that either of the two main parties represents what they believe is right for the country, now has a voice; a voice that will be heard where it matters, in Cabinet and in the chamber of deputies.

It means that two political parties, one old, one new, one large, one small, have managed to come together, not in their own interest but in the interest of what matters most of all, Malta and its citizens.

Here I must thank Simon Busuttil for daring to do the previously unthinkable. I must also thank Marlene Farrugia for bringing myself and a group of likeminded people together. We have all dared to dream of something brighter and more inclusive for our nation; we have now got the means to turn that dream into reality.

I have made my choice. I made it some time ago.

I decided to throw my previously quiet and very private life out of the window to deliver that choice.

Now it’s your turn.

Anthony Buttigieg is the deputy leader of the Democratic Party.

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