The electoral victory secured by Joseph Muscat seems to have gone to his head. He now believes that he is invincible. He won the last general election with a historic majority of 36,000 votes and enjoys a comfortable margin of nine seats more than the Opposition in our House of Representatives.

In his mind, this is all that matters. He practically said as much last Sunday in Fgura.

What he is failing to understand is that historic majority has been secured through a loan from the Nationalist quarters.

He knew that he did not have that kind of support and therefore transformed himself before election time into a person who can enjoy the trust of one and all.

Remember the catchy slogan, Malta Tagħna Lkoll, the blue tie, the ‘managerial’ approach, the promise that one can disagree with him but still work with him, and of course the road map that offered a magic solution to all that the country required?

As with any other loan, the one taken by the Labour Party comes with a fixed term and with conditions. One of those conditions is not to depart from his electoral programme.

The sale-of-citizenship scheme is Muscat’s worst major departure to date. It was never mentioned or even hinted at.

It was a closely guarded secret from the people of Malta as well as from foreign guests who were asked to join him on his election podium. One of those was the president of the Socialist Group within the European Parliament, Hannes Svoboda.

It is therefore not surprising that Muscat’s guest at his election campaign is one of the 560 members of the European Parliament who denounced the obscene sale-of-citizenship scheme being pushed ahead by our Prime Minister.

Socialist stalwarts who are now resorting to the kind of lingo that was so much the order of the day in the 1970s and 1980s argue that it is our right to determine who is or who is not a Maltese national.

They are telling us that those amongst us who dare speak out against the obnoxious scheme are traitors.

The sale-of-citizenship scheme is Muscat’s worst major departure from the electoral programme to date

Apart from the fact that this kind of language portrays a total disrespect towards the European value of freedom of expression – not to mention democracy – the Socialists in Malta are missing one fundamental point.

Only the other day I was listening to Radio 101 and heard the explanation given by Francis Zammit Dimech, who has accepted his party’s invitation to be a candidate for the European Parliament. In his inimitable style, Zammit Dimech came up with a very simple comparison.

He compared the European Union to a block of 28 apartments, that is, the present total of EU member countries.

Each owner is given a key to his apartment but what is unique about the sense of trust that prevails among the different owners is that there is really one key that can open any apartment.

The owners can move from one apartment to another without hindrance. That is the level of trust and belonging that characterises the European Union of which we became members in 2004 because we were wise enough to ignore Joseph Muscat’s exhortations.

“Now,” Zammit Dimech explained, “imagine if one of the owners steps out of the common block and starts selling copies of his key to people who have not bothered to become members of the family.

“Imagine if one of the owners, while selling such copies, actually boasts that these magic keys not only lead to his own apartment but guarantee access to every other apartment in the same block. And that determines the selling price!”

No wonder the European Union expects its members to consult one another before doing anything that can have an impact on the others. But coming to think of it, the example could be simpler – imagine if any person sells copies of his home keys without even informing his dear wife, mum or daughter about it.

Call it prostitution? Call it degenerate behaviour? But then is there money to be made – can we simply renegotiate the price to be paid!?

Nearly forgot – according to present Cabinet members of the likes of Leo Brincat, this is all tixwix (incitement) from the Nationalist side.

Methinks the Labour electoral campaign was an entire con – the packaging was glittering and it conned many, but the substance within has not changed at all.