At last!

After months of keeping the country on tenterhooks Franco Debono has finally called it a day. Lawrence Gonzi and his party have been shying away from calling an early election because according to them, the time was not right for the country to go to the polls (meaning that the polls are currently not in their favour).

Frequent opinion polls, both on MaltaToday and other Sunday papers, give a good indication of the pulse of the nation. However it appears that the Nationalists have not grasped the idea that many voters have abandoned them because they feel cheated and downtrodden and not because Joseph Muscat is promising heaven on earth. In fact it is just the opposite: many independent voters (given the semi-derogatory term 'floating-voter') know that the Labour Party will definitely not be oozing with 'feel-good factor' given the eurozone problems and the deficit.

The PN have a very strong point in their favour - the economy is still trotting along and financial Armageddon has been averted. However, the political and budgetary manoeuvring we have witnessed over the last few months has raised doubts as to whether the government is being candid about our financial stability.

Joseph Muscat is treading a very fine line; he knows the economy would come to a stand-still if he portrays doom and gloom. On the other hand, he cannot praise the economy too much as this would be labelled as 'Certifikat tal-Kompetenza tal-Gvern Nazzjonalista'. After all, Alfred Sant may well have been telling the truth when he lamented the 'hofra' he found, but the undesirable consequence was that his complaints wreaked havoc on consumer and business confidence and led to an escalation of an already precarious escalation - Joseph Muscat will have learned from that debacle that being totally honest can have disastrous consequences.

My feeling is that many people are well aware of the fact that they cannot expect a financial miracle from Labour, but that at the same time they feel that with a new administration in place there is a better chance of stemming some of the haemorrhages in our finances. The Auditor General's report left a bad taste in people's mouth and the general feeling is that the comments made might just be the tip of the iceberg. There is an impression that some people have been having it too good for too long and the time has come to sweep the stables clean.

PN has clearly done a good SWOT analysis before heading into its electoral campaign - it is playing to its strengths and also leveraging people's fears when it constantly harps on the economy. However, there are some people within the party who are clearly holding them back and it seems too late now to make amends. Despite PN knowing that people want change, it has done so with hiccups, which is what caused the rift between the Cabinet and backbenchers from the start. The recent election of a new deputy leader seems to have increased tensions further, but this might quickly heal as people join forces to face an even tougher election than the last.

In the past 30 years, the Nationalist Party has always portrayed itself as being modern and forward looking and thus gained a strong following in the middle-class and those with a tertiary education (something PL is very much aware of and desperately trying to deal with). However in the past few years, Gonzi had to deal with divorce, IVF and cohabitation bills which have dented their credibility as a modern party. I have no doubt that the party is full of people who are separated or divorced, are gay, cohabit or have had IVF and who feel that the party is totally out of touch with the realities of today. Many PN supporters don't feel comfortable with the Curia running their lives and some are so hurt that they will be crossing over to the other side.

Lawrence Gonzi and the top echelons of PN must make a clear decision regarding social issues. Unless they change tack before the general election they will have to deal with it in the post-mortem after their defeat. Talking about the economy will take them part of the way but it will not take them past the finish line. Many people have a job they deem safe and live a good life. All this gives them a (false, in my opinion) sense of security and thus social issues become important. This is clearly well known to a number of PN head honchos, who are at pains to point out that it was the PN in government who introduced divorce legislation. I could not believe the sheer chutzpah of the man when I heard Simon Busuttil saying that we should thank PN for introducing divorce.

Having been in power for so many years, the Nationalist Party is vulnerable to claims of corruption. Although they have dealt quickly and efficiently with anyone within the party caught red-handed, other cases which stink to high heaven have been brushed aside, totally ignoring the precept that there is usually no smoke without fire. Labour, on the other hand, are not immune either, as their ambivalent stance on the case of Judge Farrugia Sacco illustrates.

Come March there we will all be winners AND losers after the general elections. We will be winners if the result truly reflects the choice of the electorate, while we will be losers if we end up having to add a seat to give a majority. We will be winners if we have a peaceful election with a meaningful debate and losers if we descend into an obscene campaign. We will be winners if the next government works towards a stronger economy and losers if it decides to appease the voters at the expense of the economy.

When candidates come to visit us at our houses, we should not tell them WHO we want to govern us, but HOW we want them to govern us. Only then will our aspiring MPs get the message.