Jiena ż-Żero sfortunat. Lanqas biss għaddejt mit-test, u għal dejjem jien ser nibqa’ minix lest.
(Spare a thought for me, the hapless Zero. I did not pass my test, and will forever be half-baked.)
Sung to a popular tune by Enzo Gusman, this ditty by Hector Bruno was a staple at Nationalist Party meetings in the 1980s. The Zero in question was then-Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who had been co-opted into Parliament in 1982 with not a single vote to show for it.
Thirty years on, it’s a mixed bag for the PN. On the one hand, the crowd at the Fosos would not look out of place by an ice cream van. On the other, the party has its very own Zero. Adrian Delia has yet to contest a general election. His chosen route to a seat in Parliament is to nick somebody else’s. In case this brings to mind Joseph Muscat in 2008, there’s a small detail. Muscat had won 37,000 first-preference votes in the 2004 European Parliament elections.
Still, I don’t think the PN party members had any choice. Delia was elected by default. Chris Said has no charisma whatsoever, and his self-congratulatory holier-than-thou posturing throughout the campaign was both unconvincing and tremendously irritating.
For his part, and while not exactly mercurial, Delia does have a lovable-rogue streak about him which many are likely to warm up to. When he did play the personal integrity card in the campaign, it was in self-defence and in a manner that was not off-putting.
What helped him was the same thing that rocketed Labour to a second term in the face of serious corruption issues. It is that people understand, and not necessarily wrongly, that there can be no dogma on this one. The Prime Minister who gave us the vile and corrupt Labour government of the 1980s was by all accounts a mild-mannered and incorruptible man. Good wombs can bear bad sons, and vice-versa.
It is not the recesses and shadows that trouble me about Delia. Rather, it is things that are very much in the open, paraded even. Left unchecked, they are likely to make a mess of the PN and to further impoverish Maltese politics.
The first is what we might call his court favourites. The list couldn’t be more dismal if you tried, and includes Clyde Puli, David Agius, Jean-Pierre Debono and Hermann Schiavone. The most boring, clueless, bumbling and shadiest bunch in the PN, in other words.
I never imagined that Simon Busuttil’s successor would be someone who thinks that the ‘Kattoliċi u Latini’ words in the PN anthem are to be taken literally
It matters that they appear to be very close to Delia, and it matters even more that he owes them one. They were among those who helped him get elected, and now he is in their power. The constant rounds of high-fives, double-handed handshakes, and man hugs tell a well-trodden story: these cumpari will use their collective success to the hilt, and to considerably less collective advantage.
The second problem with Delia is the kind of PN he seems to connect with. If he were a Labourite he would wear a fancy buckle, ride horses and tell Puli to ‘Aħleb, Clyde’. Last Wednesday’s meeting at the Fosos looked like a re-enactment, complete with V-signs, a ‘Ħuti Maltin u Għawdxin!’ opening line, and Alexander Borg Olivier.
The new new-way leader is anchored to the party pageantry of the mid-1980s. And, while that will please the many pensioners who voted for him, it will come across as unintelligible to the very many people who do not remember original bell-bottoms. Not very new-way, then.
Which brings me to the third point. I never imagined that Simon Busuttil’s successor would be someone who thinks that the ‘Kattoliċi u Latini’ words in the PN anthem are to be taken literally. I suspect Delia could do with a history lesson. Whatever their merits even then, at the time when they were written those words effectively rooted the PN within broader cultural currents.
Today, they do the exact opposite. While I have no problem with Catholicism, I do have a very big one with a party leader who projects it as a party and national trophy religion. That to me sounds distinctly confessional and triumphalist. Those who are tempted to produce the old chestnut about the Constitution would do well to remain tempted. As for Malta’s Latinità, let’s not go there.
This habit of Delia’s to appeal to weird and anachronistic notions (I emphasise I am not talking about Catholicism in itself) knows no bounds. He said last Wednesday that he intends to take us back to the values that make us truly Maltese. Among the examples he used was surrogate motherhood, which apparently is non-Maltese.
Now I’m happy to listen to people who think that surrogacy is wrong, as long as they base their arguments on rationality and moral principles. When the reasoning is that surrogacy is non-native and non-Latin, I switch off. Or rather, a very bright red light turns on.
The strangest thing is that Delia appears to be very confused himself about this morality business. On the one hand he tells us that he will not compromise on abortion and such matters. On the other, he has pledged to give a free vote on matters of conscience, and has challenged Joseph Muscat to do the same.
But Delia is the party leader. The right way to not compromise on abortion would be to convince his party and proceed to use the whip to ensure a strong vote against in Parliament.
It’s early days yet, but the signs are not promising. Delia comes across as someone who is all blokey talk and very little substance.
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