Today marks the first hundred days of our second consecutive legislature. To be sure, in 2013 we were moved from the Opposition to the government benches by the largest electoral majority in our history and reconfirmed in office with an even larger one a few months ago.
In other words, for all the criticism levelled against this party and this government, some justified and most not, one thing is certain: we are carrying the people with us.
For this reason, I always find the argument that the two parties have become interchangeable deeply odd. To tweak an American saying about the marines, Go tell it to the electorate. The electorate certainly sees a massive difference between the parties, as its democratic decision in two back-to-back elections has so magnificently demonstrated.
Yet we do not plan to rest on our laurels, as our work during these first 100 days has amply shown. As I have been arguing, we did not just work in order to win. We wanted to win in order to work.
For a political party to be electorally successful is sine qua non. Otherwise it is just a debating society. Secondly, once in government a political party must deliver on its promises. Otherwise, it would be betraying its mandate, amounting to a majority of elected MPs betraying the will of a majority of the population. As the deputy leader of the Labour Party and the Deputy Prime Minister, I am extremely proud that under Joseph Muscat’s leadership we are in fact delivering, relentlessly, on both these counts.
Being pro-business has helped us become stronger and better social democrats
However, in my view, this is still not enough. Comforting and encouraging as these facts are, they are merely the foundations on which we are working to build the future. It is with vision, by looking forward, that this party and this government can maintain their momentum, their popularity and their freshness.
In this sense, allow me to float a political idea which might drive such a vision. That we have delivered on putting more money in people’s pockets is now uncontested, except by the politically blindfolded. That we run a government that works, that has increased wealth, that has given new rights, that has succeeded in Europe is also uncontested.
Yet this is not enough. On it we need to build a future that is equally focused on delivering what I would call a better quality of life. In every sense, and not just the financial and economic one.
What is a better quality of life? Other parties might struggle with this one. For us, as committed social democrats, there is only the need to look at our values and principles and reinterpret them for this day and age.
There used to be a time when our core social democratic principles might have stood in the way of the party gaining electoral traction. But in the last five years we have shown that this is certainly not the case. Being pro-business has helped us become stronger and better social democrats.
Our key values and core principles, which have delivered such good things since 2013, are clear enough. Now we need to continue reinterpreting them for a constantly evolving society: more inclusive education, free health care, social services which empower and offer opportunities, decent housing, better governance and respect for the rule of law, more democracy and more equal representation, stronger economic independence, an even fairer distribution of wealth and decent wages, and a more open and inclusive society which allows each of its members to pursue and to find his or her own happiness.
These are the political goals through which the quality of people’s lives, and not just their pockets, becomes the focus of our political programme.
At present, the Nationalist Party is busy lacerating itself on every part of its body politic. And if my reading is correct, what will triumph next weekend is a senseless drive towards populism. They think that all there is to us, to Labour, is the latter. They think that all they need to do is emulate this perceived trait.
How wrong they are. How intractable their short-sightedness is. We are led by a vision. We know where we want to go and we know how to get there. And today the country knows it as well.
Chris Fearne is Deputy Prime Minister.