At the beginning of February, I had written in this newspaper that my view of the Nationalist Party was that of a political party with no future.

Today, I feel that I need to revise what I had written then. This is because the situation within the PN is perhaps even more complicated today than it was a short while ago and while the party’s short-term prospects are almost hopeless, its long-term ones seem rather promising.

In my political work for the Labour Party I meet many people from the main Opposition party. Something that I cannot fail to notice is the enthusiasm and commitment of the several youths who are now in positions of power within the Nationalist Party and its media.

Indeed, I am impressed with their belief in what the PN stands for and their optimism. At the same time, I cannot but cynically remark to myself that the greater will probably be their regret and disillusionment when they have to face what seem to be inevitable electoral defeats in the near future.

I would go so far as to say that we are seeing a renaissance within the PN.

It is ironic, however, that the fervour of the younger members of the PN has to be contrasted with the open bickering between the more seasoned politicians within the party.

It is an open secret that while the rank and file of the PN are fully backing the new leader, Adrian Delia, the clique led by former leader Simon Busuttil behaves as if it were an autonomous branch within the Nationalist Party. Furthermore, this clique seems to have the full support of several within the PN and others who have recently left the party and who have never accepted Delia as the new leader.

To complicate matters even further, the family of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia seem bent on openly humiliating the new PN leader.

The appeal to youths to work for a cleaner, more idealistic notion of politics as public service could prove to be a winning formula later on

Obviously, this shambolic situation within the Nationalist Party eliminates it as a serious contender in forthcoming electoral contests. I cannot remotely see the PN as having any chance to put on a good show at next year’s elections for the European Parliament and those for local councils. If, however, Delia survives next year’s presumed defeats at the polls, the situation could be different at the next general election.

All depends on whether the chasm between the pro-Delia majority within the PN and the pro-Busuttil minority within and outside the party can be bridged in time.

It also remains to be seen whether Delia can steer the PN away from the self-destructive confrontational-style politics which characterised the Nationalist Party under the leadership of Busuttil. Everyone can see that the Busuttil clique is still all-out in favour of this type of politics.

Unfortunately for the PN, people like Busuttil, David Casa, Manuel Delia, Jason Azzopardi and others within their clique seem totally unable to grasp the fact that confrontational politics based almost totally on a fight against alleged corruption does not win general elections.

The positive developments within the PN are the stress on grassroot activities allied with reaching out to youths. I personally think that this almost daily contact with ordinary citizens as well as the appeal to youths to work for a cleaner, more idealistic notion of politics as public service could prove to be a winning formula later on.

Of course, the all-important question remains: when?

Meanwhile, we on the opposing side will be doing our best to make sure that the Labour Party remains in power. Labour is very strong and united at the moment. Despite facing enormous criticism beyond Malta’s shores, it commands an impressive majority locally.

A lot of good work has been done. Just look around you to realise that this is a country living in prosperity and where the quality of life has improved for one and all.

However, I sincerely believe that auto-criticism is beneficial for any political party. We need to badly improve good governance in Malta. The Panama Papers controversy has inflicted enormous damage on the reputation of this country overseas.

Unless we rid ourselves of this millstone around our necks, things will never be the same again and public confidence in good governance will remain low. We also need more light on the Caruana Galizia assassination. Unanswered questions and speculation only serve to increase citizens’ sense of insecurity.

Moreover, we have to ask ourselves whether we are committing environmental suicide with the overdevelopment that is rampant in our country. Who comes first, the ordinary citizen or the developer?

Is the PL pro-business or for business? There is a world of difference between the two concepts.

Then there is the religious aspect. We have to remember that the majority of Labour supporters are practising Roman Catholics. We have to be very careful that we don’t have a small minority imposing its will on the vast majority.

While everybody accepts that the State is secular, I still believe that the Labour government should work hand in hand with the Catholic Church for the improvement and benefit of Maltese society.

The Labour Party has a great future and I think that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is doing a great job and has shown great qualities of leadership.

Still, as previously mentioned, not all is rosy and there are areas that need to be urgently addressed. We need a more open and more decentralised Labour Party; more grassroots power; more stress on social democratic ideology; less closeness to big business; less emphasis on the purely materialistic side of things; a concrete commitment to good governance and the ideal of politics as public service.

History will judge us on what we did right and not on our amount of popular support at the time.

Desmond Zammit Marmarà is a Balzan Labour councillor.