Lawrence Gonzi replicates ‘Sunday sermon’ style for online chat

Lawrence Gonzi was forced to ditch the baying audiences he graces every Sunday at the Nationalist party clubs, to instead sit at a desk for an hour inside the PN headquarters and contemplate an endless flow of questions by almost 650 subscribers to his first ever web conference.

But was there a hint of the rehearsed riposte in the prime minister's careful regurgitation of his favourite political themes?

Were those questions he was answering being picked by himself from the never-ending stream flashing before him on his PC, or were those generic, open-ended questions provided to him by assistants?

Typically, Gonzi was flawless in delivery, his eyes swivelling from the TV camera to his laptop seamlessly, ready to take on (almost) any subject and deliver a chunky, two-minute answer of such rhetorical robustness that it seemed no question could falter him in his unstoppable sixty minutes.

But this was too Xarabank, too 'Sunday sermon' for a web-conference that should have felt a little more intimate, honest, and interactive, where some flaws could have lent Gonzi a more human face.

He was, in a nutshell, too 'perfect' and mechanical as he took on the slew of questions, with much talk on what he has done, and little vision on where he is taking the country.

For example: Gonzi did not read out the questions verbatim as he saw them. He would say: "Well, here I have a question on Microinvest... so, what's the Microinvest scheme?"

Putting aside the fact that SMEs' funding is probably one of his favourite things to talk about, how did other probing questions - on City Gate specifically, where he was asked how he justified its €80 million cost when he embarked on €40 million in budgetary cuts - turn into just another open-ended question? "Well, here I have a question about City Gate... what's happening at City Gate?"

And that answer fell out from his mouth as if he had been chewing on it the whole day long: "This project employed over 1,300 workers at its peak... you know, my office at Castille has three vistas, and I catch a glimpse of the parliament building as it rises. I see those employees and say: 'there's a Maltese national working the bulldozer... there's another Maltese working on that floor'... so, I simply cannot understand how the Opposition leader can criticise a project like this!"

And adding a new dimension to the reason he wanted a new parliament building:

"The presidential palace is a cultural treasure that should not be housing the parliamentary offices... and if it is a Maltese parliament, should be using a building bequeathed to us by a former colonialist [the Knights of St John] or move into a building of our own?"

Of course, answering to questions whose word volume ran up to over 35,000 was close to impossible. But why ignore the difficult questions on Franco Debono, and whether he would be a candidate for the party again - especially given that this was the eve of the 'crucial' budget vote which, up until recently, was threatened by the MP's rebellion?

Why ignore the question on the PN's vision on an education policy that is not only geared at strict labour and business demands, but also based on social vocations? Or the question on whether PN candidates were ignoring the party's Christian-democrat roots?

Or why didn't he venture to take on some off-centre questions such as whether he agreed with the penalisation of cannabis users and drug addicts? Or what he was doing to change the mentality that nepotism was rampant in public sector employment?

There were of course, less incisive subjects that Gonzi relished in talking about: more pedestrianisation; more beds at Karin Grech Hospital; more investment in treating waste water (he felt it appropriate to mention he had addressed foreign hydrologists that same morning, who commented to him on the beauty of Malta and the 'lovely' hotel they stayed in);

-       the aviation park, where tomorrow he announces a €17 million investment; Smart City, and Maghtab's eventual landscaping; the parent tax he introduced and the wide cross-section of people whose income is not taxable thanks to raised ceilings;

-       alternative energy, where he correctly pointed out that this does not automatically translate into cheaper tariffs;

-       the pending civil service's collective agreement, in which he pointed out that it was unions whose demands were too lofty;

-       scholarships, the IMF's healthy verdict on the Maltese economy, more factory space, more jobs in Gozo, factory aid (in reply to a Karen, a Trelleborg worker);

-       on university stipends, and whether they were sustainable, Gonzi insisted they were while reiterating Labour's disastrous approach when it chose to slash them in 1997;

-       at a certain point, it seemed Gonzi tempered the cloudy expectations for his Vision 2015 and his centres of excellence, by talking about the unexpected financial crisis of 2008 as the major dampener of all time;

-       he defended the introduction of low-cost airlines by using Cyprus as an example, which has no low-cost and its national airline still went bankrupt.

Lawrence Gonzi did however venture an explanation on why voters still had to choose him to lead the country, and not Joseph Muscat:

"Because it was our policies that brought our country out of the economic storm, and because we offer our youths the best guarantee for the future.

"And we are saying what our policies are, we are laying the cards on the table... we're facing down the increase in the price of oil, the eurozone contagion, and the strife happening south of the Mediterranean. Our strategy has given you solutions, and I speak with facts in my hands.

"The IMF, the EU, foreign and local investors tell us 'congratulations', we are a success in employment and tourism...  on the other hand, what can I say about the emptiness of Labour and the lack of policies it has given us?'