The leader of the Opposition reached the target he set himself in the recent European Parliament elections where the Nationalist Party managed to win its third seat. What he failed to achieve isfor voters to give a ‘yellow card’ to the Prime Minister. Perhaps, he will now tell us the colour of the card given to him by the electorate.
EP elections tend to serve as a protest vote and Simon Busuttil tried to capitalise on this fact. The PN knows this very well given that it has not won one such election when in office ever since Malta joined the EU in 2004.
On his part, the Prime Minister really had nothing to prove. The achievements of his government in its first year were impressive: a smooth transition in administration, a growing economy and the fulfilment of one third of electoral promises. With a 36,000-vote, nine-seat majority, Muscat did not need to prove anything in last month’s EP elections.
It is incredible how the PN leadership continues to underestimate the political drive of the Prime Minister. If the PN were not blinded by its arrogance, it would have realised by now that Muscat will not shy away from a challenge.
Busuttil wanted the EP elections to be a protest vote and Muscat turned it into a contest between two personalities. The results speak for themselves. Given that the PL is now in government, the result is even more impressive than the figures suggest. Unlike what happened in the 2013 elections, this time round Busuttil has nowhere to hide. As the leader of Times of Malta put it (May, 26 “Simon Busuttil huffed and puffed but…[it] came crashing down on him.”
Once again, voters rewarded Muscat for his vision and energy and for giving them hope. They rejected the PN’s continued scaremongering and bitterness.
The PN has to rebuild its credibility and this has to start through a changed mindset
This is another opportunity for some serious soul-searching by the PN. They cannot just continue to lament that the PL has a superior, slick organisational structure or blame voters for being ungrateful for all the good that PN governments have done for the country. PN leaders cannot present themselves as if the electorate has already forgotten their track-record when in government.
The PN has to rebuild its credibility and this has to start through a changed mindset. The country needs a vigilant but positive Opposition that keeps government on its toes. It has to convince people that it has managed to put its house in order. This requires more than cosmetic change and the PN leader needs to address the big divide between the party’s liberal and the conservative factions which plagues the party in earnest.
It is true, as Busuttil himself put it, that the PN has a mountain to climb. But it is also true that its tactics over the last year have appealed only to the party faithful. The leader of the Opposition claims that the transformation of the party is a five-year project. In this he is probably right. What one fails to understand is if it takes so long to solve the problems of the party, how can he genuinely expects the PL government to meet all the challenges facing our country in just one year?
Busuttil’s betrayed his true feelings when he complained that, “It seems that for Labour everything went well” (Times of Malta, May 26). This is a far cry from his pre-2013 prediction that within a year a PL government would be asking for a bailout from the EU. Moreover, such a statement inevitably boomerangs upon his own performance.
Confronted by this reality, Busuttil bravely declared that: “We are notfor turning.” Fair enough, given thathe did reach the target he set for himself. What is unacceptable is to continueelectioneering as if a general election is around the corner. The Maltese electorate deserves a break.
As things turned out, the single most important message coming out of the 2014 EP elections is that the Prime Minister has the support of a significant majority of citizens. He has a clear mandate to continue with his programme to transform Malta for the benefit of all its citizens. Muscat knows that democracies work best where the victor is mindful of the losers and tries to govern in the national interest.
Of course, in the process, his government will make mistakes, but he should continue acting with the conviction that he is doing the right thing. However, the Prime Minister and his team have to remain close to the people, especially traditional PL supporters. Their expectations after years of discrimination and neglect should not be ignored nor their support taken for granted. A total of 80,000 citizens decided not to vote in these EP elections and their vote is upfor grabs.
On the broader EU level, some 57 per cent of voters chose not to exercise this right. A third of those that did vote expressed a preference for an anti-EU or an Eurosceptic party. The message of political rejection sent by these citizens should be given due consideration by the newly elected MEPs.
Particularly troubling is what Charlemagne of The Economist wrote:“The blunt reality is that Europe’s political fault-line is shifting: from leftversus right, to pro-Europeans against anti-Europeans.”
Interesting times lie ahead.
fms18@onvol.net