E veryone is entitled to one honeymoon. The lucky ones, in the political world at least, get the chance to have a second. However, the one Lawrence Gonzi embarked upon three months ago - that's a quarter of a year - has been unnervingly long.
In that time his government has been getting away with everything under the sun short of murder: Partnership for Peace; broken electoral promises in the form of board appointments and second thoughts on the implementation of a pre-election income tax pledge; brazen statements by new-old ministers about how disastrous their predecessors were, even though they formed part of the same administration; withdrawal of the energy-saving incentive scheme. Whatever's next?
Newly elected Labour leader Joseph Muscat has boldly declared that Dr Gonzi's honeymoon is over, and he added as his victory in the leadership election was confirmed on Friday night: "We're back in business." However, his immediate task after the briefest of honeymoons - more of a dirty weekend really - is to prove that business this time will be different.
The first step to achieving this is to bring some form of unity to what is evidently a fragmented party at present.
Dr Muscat has already displayed enough foresight to realise that it must be broken further before it can be put back together again. The "internal earthquake" promised by the new Labour leader should be music to the ears of anyone who truly loves the MLP and he must do everything in his power to ensure general secretary Jason Micallef is the first casualty.
While Dr Muscat was sounding conciliatory notes during his campaign and in his victory speech - inviting all those who felt excluded from the party to return to the fold - Mr Micallef continued to sow poisonous seeds of division.
His comment to the party's radio station on Friday night, a thinly-veiled attempt to mock Michael Falzon for hugging Nationalist Party general secretary Joe Saliba after the March 8 election, was the latest in an unsavoury series which began at the start of the leadership race with an attack on George Abela.
This approach is not just distasteful; it is politically suicidal, since between them these two heavyweights commanded the support of almost half the delegates who voted for a new leader in the first round.
Ridding himself of the general secretary will also help Dr Muscat to begin to shed the shadow of his predecessor which, whether he likes it or not, will hang over him until he discards it. And discard it he must, in the short-term to convince alienated members of the MLP that he means it when he says there is a place for everyone - they are clearly still in doubt - and in the longer term to persuade the wider electorate that the party has changed sufficiently in style and substance to be a viable alternative government.
After completing the Herculean task of unifying the MLP, Dr Muscat must stock it with a strategic and policymaking arsenal that will be able to loosen the PN's grip on power.
This is where his judgment will be put to the test, both in terms of the people he chooses to be on the opposition front bench as well as whom he chooses to take advice from. He must know when to listen, when to co-operate and when to attack, as well as who and how to attack. Reforming his party media should also be high on his agenda.
A daunting task, perhaps. But an exciting one. And one for which he possesses the qualities to complete. Now it is up to him.