Next Saturday it will be four weeks to the day since voters returned the Nationalist party to power with a relative majority. In just over another four weeks, the President of the Republic will open the tenth Parliament since Independence Day and present the government's legislative programme for the next five years.
Those who think we are currently going through a form of political twilight zone are correct only up to a point. Behind the scenes and, indeed, in front of them, both parties are busily preparing themselves for the task ahead.
The Labour party is undergoing a soul-searching exercise that will end, ultimately, in the choice of a new leader. Under normal circumstances, this would have been concluded before the opening of Parliament in early May, but the circumstances for the Labour Party in the wake of its defeat at the polls are not normal.
The bitter disappointment that followed created a storm of protest within the party, which accused the leadership, in a broad sense, of misleading supporters into thinking that the election would be a walk-over. The leader, Alfred Sant, has resigned. Party activists are demanding the resignation of others who also contributed to the failure of March 8. The bitterness has not abated as various contenders for the top job announce their willingness and readiness to take over the leadership of the party. The contest may turn out to be an unpretty sight as contenders stake out their claim for the post. An increasingly harsh conflict as to who elects the new leader, party delegates or party members (tesserati), waits to be resolved. When Parliament opens, therefore, the Opposition will still be without a leader.
The governing party, too, is in preparation for what promises to be an intensely busy legislature. Its electoral manifesto ran into more than 300 items and the electorate will be closely following progress. Some will be easy to deliver and will, in all probability, find little or no opposition unless, that is, the Opposition decides that its task is to make life difficult for the government in every detail.
Where there is disagreement on matters of principle it is the task of an Opposition to fight its corner with energy - and constructively; on innocuous matters, on the other hand, we believe that it will not be in the national interest for the Opposition to indulge in petty politics. Its supporters may wish otherwise, but the whole point about any hope of returning to the government benches is that the party's behaviour in Parliament is such as to appeal to those of the electorate who do not, at present, support the party.
An early point to be considered will be the mechanism of "pairing". The temptation not to "pair", that is, to decide to neutralise the vote of a shadow minister in the event of a minister being away from the island, may be great - and should be desisted. Ministers are called, from time to time, to travel abroad, to attend this or that conference. They do so on behalf of the country and should be free to do so without wondering whether their absence will imperil the life of the government.
Should the Opposition choose otherwise, it will become incumbent on the government to refrain from holding parliamentary sittings during a minister's absence. Clearly, this would be an unwelcome state of affairs that is not in the country's interest. Presumably, during what we have called this "twilight" zone, the government and Opposition are discussing this matter and others that affect the conduct of parliamentary life, such as the appointment of the Speaker, as well as the wider conduct of government in the context of the contribution civil society can make to good governance.
We are in for a hectic Parliament, one we hope will also be creative as befits a country preparing to make another qualitative leap forward as a well-established member of the European Union.