Analysis | From Mintoff to Franco

One-party governments in crisis | Appeasement or intransigence? | A question of ideology? | Bringing the crisis to parliament | Resign or else? | Reaching crisis point | Loved by the enemy | Bitter aftermath

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When Muscat called on Sant to act like a lion
When Eddie Fenech Adami defended the right to vote against one's government

Karl Marx's observation that history repeats itself twice, first as tragedy then as farce, could not be more apt as a comparison between political events in 1998 and those in 2012.

There can be no comparison between the emotions stirred by the rebellion of the self proclaimed "father of the party" against the prodigal son who called his bluff, and the antics of a first-time backbencher who kept raising the stakes in the face of an appeasing Prime Minister.  

"He made us cry, not only us from the government side who stood with him but all Labourites," wrote Labour MP Maria Camillieri on 19 July 1998 in an emotional article, which captured the mood of Labourites.

So dramatic were events in June 1998 that many were forced to switch off the sound from their TV sets at the height of the World Cup to listen to the 83-year-old Dom Mintoff making his marathon speeches on their radio.

Still, without stirring the same level of emotions of betrayal or grief, Debono's antics made him the talk of town, distracting everyone's from speculation on the New Year's Day double murder. 

In fact, there are both striking similarities and defining contrasts between post-Independence Malta's only two experiences of political instability.

One-party governments in crisis

Both Sant in 1996 and Gonzi in 2008 scraped through power with one-seat majorities. But while Sant won the election with an 8,000-vote margin and an absolute majority, Gonzi won with a paltry 1,500 votes and a relative majority. 

This led to recriminations on Sant's part that he was a victim of district gerrymandering tailor-made to weaken his government. 

But while Debono contested the party without setting any conditions on his party, Mintoff contested the election with his own electoral programme, which stood in marked contrast to that of Sant's New Labour policies. While Sant led a slick corporate campaign aimed at winning over the middle class, Mintoff carried out his own traditional corner meetings in Cottonera.

Still, Debono was the ultimate product of an electoral campaign symbolised by the GonziPN motif, which turned the election in to a presidential contest in which Ministers and party stalwarts were sidelined.

In this way, new candidates like Debono had a field day, to the extent that the young lawyer managed to eliminate party stalwarts Louis Galea and Helen Debono from parliament.

While the 1996 election effectively produced a coalition between the Labour Party led by Sant and Mintoff who held on to his programme, the 2008 election produced a coalition between Gonzi and a dysfunctional backbench. 

Both incidents have proven, without a doubt, that one-party governments are not immune from instability.

Alfred Sant could not be more clear in his assessment of the situation in an article he penned for It-Torca, on 28 June 1998.

Sant warned of the risks of moving away from collegiality towards "a system of negotiation between individual parliamentarians". In this case, Sant warned that "irrespective of the decisions taken by cabinet and the parliamentary group, things will never be clear and everything will be slowed down". According to Sant, this was not practical in a situation where "we want to introduce big structural changes in society". Because of this, the timing of Mintoff's antics "could not have been worse".  

One can't but note the similarity with Gonzi's warning that Franco Debono's antics risk undermining the Maltese economy at such a sensitive time.

Moreover, both governments were shaken after conducting painful fiscal surgery, particularly with regards to utility bills, which proved to be an Achilles Heel for both Sant and Gonzi.

Appeasement or intransigence?

In both cases, the crisis had been escalating for months before it reached a point of no return. Both Dom Mintoff and Franco Debono had previously signalled their discontent by abstaining in crucial votes, forcing government to rely on vote of the Speaker.

While Mintoff had threatened the stability of Sant's government by abstaining during the 1997 budget votes - forcing the government to rely on the Speaker's vote - Franco Debono abstained on an opposition no-confidence vote in Transport Minister Austin Gatt who was only saved thanks to the Speaker's casting vote.

But while Sant disregarded Mintoff completely even after the budget votes, Gonzi repeatedly tried to appease Debono's demands, going as far as embarking on a government re-shuffle which addressed Debono's key demand of separating the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry. Surprisingly, this final act of capitulation left Debono even more bitter against Gonzi.

In some ways, both incidents are lesson that political egos are neither tamed by appeasement nor intransigence.

A question of ideology?

Although in both instances, the crisis was provoked by single issues - a Cabinet re-shuffle in the case of Debono and a motion on the Cottonera marina in Mintoff's case - both politicians questioned Sant and Gonzi's respective system of government and party leaderships.

Debono has gone as far as describing GonziPN as a "network of evil" and an "oligarchy". Mintoff's criticism was more ideological, accusing Sant of being worse than Margaret Thatcher.

"Thatcher was accused of selling the family silver, this government is not only doing like Thatcher but is also selling the sea, the coast and the land for 100 years," Mintoff told parliament on 7 July.

Both politicians felt excluded. Mintoff went as far as protesting at the fact that "the father of the party" was not even allowed access to the party headquarters.

But while Mintoff challenged the entire edifice of Sant's ideology, Debono portrays himself as a politician challenging the restricted circle of power from which he was excluded.

Bringing the crisis to parliament

While the crisis in 1998 was precipitated by a vote in parliament, the  crisis in 2012 was precipitated by Debono's reaction to a government re-shuffle while parliament was in its Christmas recess.

So while Sant had actually lost a vote on 8 June 1998 in the first vote on the lease of government land in Birgu to a US based company, Debono has not yet voted against the government. This has prompted President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami to describe the present situation as a "near crisis" as a crisis only becomes real when actual votes are taken in parliament.

In fact, while the Debono saga has so far unfolded on the TV screens, most of the drama in 1998 occurred in parliament. While Debono stole the show thanks to his witty remarks on Bondiplus, Mintoff literally glued thousands of people to their radio sets during his marathon speeches in parliament.

Resign or else?

Just like Mintoff before him, Debono has been asked to resign from parliament by the leader, the party's executive and parliamentary groups after declaring that he would vote against government.

And both Gonzi and Sant descended to the respective constituencies (Birgu and M'Xlokk) of the rebel MPs to demand their resignation.

But the M'Xlokk club event was a sober affair compared to Sant's outburst in Birgu.

An angry Sant concluded his speech by saying that he would not end his speech by saying Malta first and foremost as this outcry was "betrayed".

He also accused Mintoff of conspiring with Guido de Marco and the Nationalist Party and accused the former leader of talking to the Libyan government behind everybody's back.

Moreover, Dom Mintoff and Franco Debono refused to resign from parliament.

Both the Labour Party in 1998 and the Nationalist Party in 2012 mobilised the party machine against the rebel backbenchers.

In Debono's case, party icons like Pietru Pawl Busuttil were mobilised to collect signatures calling on Debono to resign.

In Mintoff's case, open letters by former Mintoffians like Lino Cassar and former Labour MP John Dalli were published in l-orizzont.

In an emotional letter to his former mentor, Lino Cassar still described Mintoff as "the greatest Statesman Malta ever had" but condemned him for using the "cruel weapon of blackmail".

In later articles, Cassar compared Mintoff to Dr Jekyll, whose Hyde was had overtaken him.

Reaching crisis point

The greatest difference between events in 1998 and 2012 is that while Sant seemed hell-bent on calling Mintoff's bluff by linking normal bill to vote of confidence, Gonzi makes it a point to stress that he will not make the same mistake as Sant, and that he will never call for a vote of confidence. In this way, while Sant precipitated the crisis by linking a normal vote to confidence vote, Gonzi seems bent on gaining as much time as possible by putting the onus of calling such a vote on the opposition.

Another notable difference between 1998 and 2012 is that while Debono is keen on bringing the government down to the extent that he immediately made it clear that he would vote against the government in any confidence vote, Mintoff was adamant that his intention was not that of bringing the government down.

Mintoff even showed his "good will" towards the government by voting two financial bills on 25 June 1998.

"I am voting in favour to show the people that I do not want to topple any government, let alone a Labour government," Mintoff said.

But in the final showdown on 6 July when the government lost the vote, Mintoff did call on Sant to resign.

"Whoever is passing the ball in my court simply because he is not capable to govern should resign instead of ruining both country and party."

Loved by the enemy

In both cases, the two rebels were offered shelter in the media of the opposite party.

Two of Mintoff's press conferences in front of parliament were transmitted live on NET TV, with budding journalist Pierre Portelli taking the role of interviewer.

In what became a veritable cult TV moment, Mintoff asked Portelli to hold up plans of the Cottonera project in the courtyard below parliament, where Mintoff gave a 'lecture' about the 'bungled project'.

But while gaining ephemeral sympathy on the other side, Mintoff, like Debono, attracted vitriolic attacks from their own side. While the attack on Debono was confined to blogs and Facebook comments, Mintoff was mainly the target of radio phone-ins. Yet the worst was yet to come, when Moira Mintoff's grave was vandalised after Labour lost the 1998 election.

While for Labour, Franco Debono represents little or no baggage, Mintoff did present the PN with a problem considering his place as evil incarnate within Nationalist historiography. 

In fact, Sant tried to appeal to the anti-Mintoff element in the PN by describing the conflict as one pitting his modernist vision against the "antiquated style of politics of both Fenech Adami and Mintoff".  

Pundits who forecasted a sympathy vote for Sant from middle class voters who resented Mintoff were proved wrong even if the clash with Mintoff did help Sant keep the party united behind him.

But ultimately, the parties still managed to close ranks with the PN losing nothing to Labour while winning back the voters it lost in previous election.  

Bitter aftermath

Ironically, the abrupt end to his government ended up solidifying Sant's leadership of the party at the cost of excluding it from government for the next decade.

For Sant could always claim that the electorate was not given the chance to assess him on the basis of a full term.

On the very night his government fell among rowdy scenes inside and around parliament in which than Minister Joe Debono Grech came close to assaulting Mintoff, an enraged Sant declared "war" on the Nationalist Party.

"If they think that they have opened a window for the destabilisation of the political system we will show them who will destabilise the political system... from now onwards, it will be war, war, war against the Nationalist Party."

Will history repeat itself twice again even on this count after the next election?