In late 2012, when Simon Busuttil and Tonio Fenech went head to head and were vying for the deputy leadership of the Nationalist Party, I remember thinking it would be lunacy for Busuttil to consider the position, even for a second, given the overwhelming popularity and rave reviews he enjoyed at EU level. Although I’m pretty sure I told Busuttil exactly how I felt on a number of occasions, I still went on record and endorsed him publicly.
Not because I had some axe to grind with Fenech or because he didn’t have what it takes. When it came to local politics, Fenech was definitely an older hand at the trade – a formidable heavyweight opponent, quick on the uptake, who could talk his way into and out of an argument with incredible ease.
On the flip side, locally, Busuttil was a newbie and unknown quantity. There was no telling then, whether Busuttil would be able to find his centre of gravity and localise himself into Maltese politics with its tribal pettiness and prevarication.
And yet, I – and clearly many more PN councillors – rooted for Busuttil preferring him at the helm. If for no other reason because he had consistently proven to be the darling of EU MEP elections – driven and dedicated with the stamina of a bull, who had steered us into EU without a glitch. His was the sort of squeaky clean guy-next-door image that the PN desperately needed to rediscover and cultivate.
They needed a drastic re-dimensioning and new lease of life, someone fresh and approachable who would not take anything for granted ever again and who, it was hoped, would save them from themselves.
Busuttil appeared to tick all the boxes. That he had never before been active at partisan level meant that he could not be associated with or blamed for any of the blunders, crimes or misdemeanours committed on the GonziPN watch. Or clock, as in Fenech’s case.
On top of that, the feeling was that Busuttil would bring his European experience to the negotiating table and would be far cooler and more liberal than Fenech, who increasingly seemed to have something of a Madonna complex.
A year, another election and yet another serious beating at the polls later, the PN are experiencing another meltdown, far more painful and infinitely worse than that of March 2013. Back then, a 37,000 Labour swing could easily be rationalised. After 25 years of the same people in power and especially with Arriva, Trafigura and all the bad blood and internal bickering, the pendulum was bound to swing nonlinearly – well outside of its harmonic motion.
But after 14 months of a Labour government, which saw some very controversial and unpopular decisions, a swing back, however minimal, and some sort of protest vote, was forecast. This came in the form of 80,000 unused or uncollected votes which still did not manage to dent Labour’s absolute majority, leaving them with a cool 53 per cent.
With just 40 per cent of the voting pie (three per cent down from last election), the PN have recoiled in horror, visibly shell shocked and are back to soul-searching, wondering how much further they can sink before they are unrecognisable, even to themselves. Busuttil has declared that he has no intention of resigning. And why should he?
After all, he was plucked out of Brussels when he was still careering ahead, catapulted onto the political stage and virtually lumped with yesterday’s leftovers from a meal he hadn’t partaken of.
It was hardly an offer he couldn’t refuse. The fact that he didn’t and instead chose to abandon a career where he enjoyed unparalleled popularity is reason enough to give him a proper stab at this Herculean task.
We ain’t seen nothing yet – to be sure. No political earthquake coming from PN headquarters. The feeling is that Busuttil hasn’t yet shaken things up and reupholstered. He’s moved into someone else’s house, is sleeping in someone else’s bed, surrounded by someone else’s picture frames. He’s tiptoeing around refusing to take ownership, and it shows.
Which is not to say that he hasn’t tried to be an Opposition. He’s made lots of noise – it just doesn’t seem to be the right sort of noise.
He comes across as hostile without sounding authoritative – a bit too much chihuahua and not enough Italian mastiff. There are still too many cooks, hands and ideologies and the electorate know this. The PN are obviously still pussyfooting around trying to get their act together. They’re so preoccupied with keeping each other happy, they don’t seem to have room for anyone else or time for making up their own narrative.
Busuttil has declared that he has no intention of resigning. And why should he?
In the aftermath of their Civil Unions Bill abstention, walking onto Palace Square, they looked far more disappointed in themselves than we could ever be in them. And while their reservations on the citizenship programme may have been valid in theory, they still managed to mess that up – at least that is how it looked to the man in the street. And I don’t mean the Chinese billionaire.
It’s how it looks to the ordinary man with no real loyalties either way – not the 40 per cent core voters, who fly in from all corners of the world to vote PN. My feeling is that the PN imagined that March 2013 vote was some freak backlash and they could pretty much sit tight and rely on Labour messing up and reneging on its promises.
They still haven’t shed their progressively stale and unwarranted superiority complex. They still talk down to most everyone who dares ask them a question, like they have some sense of political entitlement and Joseph Muscat and the Labour government are a two-bit circus – a bunch of imposters who stole their political thunder.
This might be just what the doctor ordered. Perhaps the proverbial hare might have finally woken up from its siesta. Perhaps now they have finally understood that they should get over themselves and not take anything or anyone for granted ever again.
michelaspiteri@gmail.com