Even though it was over just a short while ago the general election and its short yet intensive campaign appear to be already lost in the mists of time. Somehow, it came and went as if nothing happened, with hardly any residual memories to speak of. National life took a coffee break, consulted the people and quickly went back to work and life.
Even the fact that the Labour Party won a second consecutive – and bigger – historic majority, has disappeared from the collective consciousness as a sort of ‘been there done that’ moment.
Perhaps to speak of a collective consciousness is a slight exaggeration. I forgot the inner circles of the Nationalist Party in which the election and its aftermath are still alive, well and wreaking havoc at Pietà with every passing day. They have turned the PN into Cirque du Soleil. Without the magic.
But let’s step aside from the political mess that the honourable gentlemen on the other side of our House are in. After all, that is what the rest of the country has done.
This let’s-get-on-with-it public mood seems to have air-brushed more than just this historic election out of the picture. It is treating this legislature as if it were a mere formal extension of the previous one. That this is a new government with a fresh mandate, a new electoral programme and a substantially changed Cabinet with many fresh faces is largely ignored.
Roads must lead to somewhere and our electoral victory led us immediately to the heart of our party’s belief system – social justice and solidarity
Yet a new legislature this certainly is, a lesson that my first few days as Deputy Prime Minister has quickly taught me. Working shoulder to shoulder with our indefatigable Prime Minister, we are already implementing the electoral programme that will take us all to the best years yet.
While on the subject of taking the country forward, let us start with our roads and streets. We promised to fix all of them in seven years. No sooner had the electoral celebration carcades brought down their flags than we were on our way. The Kappara flyover is closing in on completion, with the first two lanes already open to traffic. We also set to work on three new lanes tacked onto Aviation Road, easing traffic flows from the Kirkop tunnel, Gudja bypass and to our international airport.
Roads must lead to somewhere and our electoral victory led us immediately to the heart of our party’s belief system – social justice and solidarity. For all our achievements in our first term, there was one area where we could have done more, the social housing sector.
Sure enough, no sooner had the last vote been counted than we embarked in earnest on this front. By the end of this year works will start on the first tranche of social accommodation – 65 apartments and 115 parking spaces in Cospicua. More, many more, are in the pipeline.
We did not stop there, on the social front. My friend and Cabinet colleague, Edward Scicluna, has launched a path-breaking savings bond scheme for pensioners, specifically intended to bolster their income. I have no doubt that under his wise guidance it will achieve the desired results. My other friend and Cabinet colleague, Helena Dalli, has been equally active and innovative in her drive to achieve social justice and deliver new rights. By signing gay marriage into law, she has put Malta at the forefront of Europe.
All this is just the beginning. There certainly is a lot more to be done. Yet we as a team, led by Joseph Muscat, have the single most important make-or-break ingredient to do it. Enthusiasm. It is the reason why we as ministers and as a parliamentary group, perhaps more than anyone else, already feel that the last election is almost a distant memory.
Because we didn’t just work in order to win. We wanted to win in order to work.
Chris Fearne is Deputy Prime Minister.