The euphoria of the Labour Party (PL) after winning four MEP seats will soon subside and the Nationalist Party (PN) will slowly get over the defeat. But that should not be end of story.
It would only be to its peril were the PL to sit on its laurels and consider this victory as a guarantee of success at the polls whenever the general election is held, in four years' time or earlier. Likewise, the PN would be committing political suicide if it consoles itself by arguing that the electorate would behave very differently in a general election. It will but not at any cost and it should certainly not be taken for granted as, alas, the PN has a habit of doing.
After the first European Parliament elections in Malta five years ago, The Times said editorially under the title Message From the Ballot Box that, in the wake of its win at the polls, the PL risked failing to realise that, like the PN, it too was burdened with problems, mainly of the leadership type. Since then, there have been widespread changes in the party leadership, though not all for the better as, indeed, Labour elements themselves admit, at least in private.
The earthquake within the party that Joseph Muscat pledged when he took over as leader has, so far, not materialised. The PL has still to convince the people it truly believes in EU membership and New Labour remains very much a paper project.
One pitfall Dr Muscat, in particular, needs to be careful about is trying to please everybody, at the same time, all the time. By now he must be dreading certain decisions he made or did not make in his campaign of building a coalition, or movement, comprising everybody. Good leadership demands tough decisions and, at times, cruel ones too.
Perhaps nobody would agree with that more than Lawrence Gonzi. Five years ago, Dr Gonzi, both as Prime Minister and as party leader, had declared that the government and the PN would be taking note of the Euro election result.
He had also acknowledged that the people had transmitted a clear message that they wanted a serious government. He repeated that again on Sunday.
Well, what is the situation within both the government and the PN five years down the line? Look at this latest electoral result and you have the answer. The message sent by PN supporters on Saturday is not coming only from people who were booked by a local warden, whether justly or not. Nor is it the silly complaint of somebody who expects to continue receiving social benefits notwithstanding his/her handsome bank account. This result is a reflection of the widespread discontent with an arrogant government that bulldozes its way through only to make a weak apology on the eve of an election and the antics of a party that has very much become a "family" affair.
Dr Gonzi does not have much time on his hands. A week may be too long in politics but four years are a short time in reshaping a party. He has very few options but to act as the Queen of Hearts does in Alice in Wonderland: Off with their heads, both at government - not just in terms of Cabinet but also in the case of top officials, including some very close to him - and at party level. Otherwise, it would be his head that would roll.