Now for the beef

Simon Busuttil has won a resounding victory, beyond expectations, against the wishes of most Cabinet members, surpassing an unprecedented two-thirds threshold that, in his own words, "will give the Nationalist party a fighting chance to win the election". 

Busuttil's rallying call to the councillors was clear and direct "vote for the candidate you think can better place the party to win the general election". His rallying call is ambitious since Labour has a polling comfort zone and only time will tell whether he can complete the job, failing which no doubt a very bitter election for the leader will take place in the eventuality of a loss at the polls.

The councillors have spoken, and are placing all their electoral hopes in the young deputy leader. Their choice was in synch with the wishes of the wider PN electorate, which would have been confirmed had the party been wise enough to widen the electoral college to all card holding nationalists, as advised by this newspaper editorially. Hopefully, in time the new deputy leader will show concretely that the party again belongs to the many and not to the few.

The outcome of the vote leaves the members of the Cabinet barring the health minister with much egg on their faces. Their absence while the result was being announced speaks volumes. The wisdom of throwing their total support behind Tonio Fenech calls into effect their sense of judgment and their motivation. Was it a sense of esprit de corps or a handful of them biding their time for a re-fight after the election, in the hope of Simon Busuttil getting burnt after a bruising defeat at the polls?

Whatever their reasons, they certainly were not acting in the general electoral interests of the party, since political sense dictated that Busuttil will definitely give the PN a better chance at the polls. The vote may also be interpreted as the councillors giving resounding thumbs down to the Cabinet, which keeps appearing too distant from the day-to-day wishes of the people.

The political wisdom of having this contestation on the eve of an election was always going to raise problems, with the inevitable blood that has been split and the time, far longer than the brief period up to the election, which will be needed to heal the wounds. Some members of the Cabinet may feel upset at the result and considering it as non-recognition of the work they have done in the last years. Others may feel less enthusiastic with the consequences of the decision, leaving the hard-working and competent finance minister to appear humiliated despite the way he managed to stir the economic ship in very turbulent waters. One certainly admires the dignified way he accepted defeat, and the gracious way he complimented his rival.

Tomorrow will not just be another day in the Nationalist Party - the appearance of a new deputy leader inevitably will have its effect on the stability within the electoral campaign team. Will his new position bring in more energy or serve to clash with the traditional strategists of the PN, who to date have run a weak negative campaign which has not managed to raise enthusiasm?

The crucial question beyond electoral strategies is: what effect will the new deputy leader have on the disgruntled? Will it bring them back home? Will it just give them a false sense of hope for change - is it just a ruse, a deceitful way to give the impression that things will change without the real intention to change things?

The contestation was a battle between two personalities with little exchange of ideas and policies. Its now time for Simon Busuttil to declare where he stands on burning issues like party donations, electoral reform, the whistleblowers act, freedom of information accountability and transparency. Will he Europeanise the party? Yesterday's result no doubt will raise expectations, but the new leader will now have to move into a more decision-making frame of mind.

In Europe, he could speak in Malta he must act, decide and be prepared to be judged on the basis of the decisions he takes which, after all, is the daily chores that ministers have to go through. He can no longer be exculpated from any of the decisions, which government takes from now on. To this extent, it is expected to change things and really make things happen. In all fairness, time may not be on his side, especially since the Franco Debono sword of Damocles is now also hanging over his future, and not only the future of the whole government. He has till the election is announced or in the few months, if Debono has a change of heart, to start seeing concrete decisions taken, which will give the wider PN electorate the conviction that change in their party has really taken take place.