It looks like we're in for a positive streak. We've shown the Italians that the Malta minnows are no pushovers when it comes to illegal immigration and we have an official photograph of the President which is to our liking.
Having got that last pressing matter out of the way, we should be settling down and relaxing - or at least feeling anxious about something which is really worrying, such as the recession. But we're having none of that. Our latest polemic of choice concerns the takeover of the Western world by Islam.
A video entitled 'Dangerous Demographics' which is being circulated purports to show how this will take place. Apparently the culture of Christian or 'Western' countries will soon be a thing of the past because of the demographic decline in these countries. In other words, there will be no-one to perpetuate Western culture because the birth rate is decreasing spectacularly while Muslims are going forth and multiplying.
The ominous voiceover on the clip informs us that the world our children will live in will be very different from that in which we live today and that the Muslim religion will be predominant worldwide.
It is a given that the planet will be different in future. What I find ironic is that people who aren't usually concerned with the practice of their religion are suddenly worrying about its extermination because they've watched a demographic doomsday clip.
The ways of averting the scenario they dread involves ratcheting up the reproductive rate and converting others to the cause. If they're not ready to do that, it's useless clucking about takeovers.
• Three short weeks ago Roberto Maroni didn't figure very high on the Maltese radar. Then the Pinar incident cropped up and the Italian minister was transformed into the villain of the piece. Italy's initial refusal to accept the shipload of immigrants and the resultant stand-off was put down to Maroni pandering to his far right voter base. He did not endear himself to the Maltese when he declared he would be presenting a dossier about the incident to the European Commission.
Regardless of political sympathies, for once the Maltese were united in wanting to tell the moustachioed Maroni where to stick his dossier. We continued to bristle against his bullying attitude when Italy stuck to its guns about a second boatload of immigrants.
It was only when yet another group of immigrants was grudgingly taken in by the Italians and hauled back to Libya, that Maroni's stock rose. Suddenly he was hailed as a practical politician who had found the ideal solution to stem the human tide which was coming our way from Africa, threatening to engulf Europe.
Maroni's elevation from zero to hero is a reflection of the way in which illegal immigration has zoomed to the top of voters' concerns. If online polls are anything to go by, it is the most pressing issue in this electoral campaign, with the economy and the cost of living coming in a distant second and third respectively. Both the PN and the PL have recognised the fact that the anti-immigration bandwagon is as good a vehicle as any to transport them to victory next month. The two are trying to outdo each other in the 'Keep 'em out' stakes. It is interesting to see how the parties' anti-immigrant strategies have developed and which have the greater chances of success.
Initially the Nationalist Party did not come out strongly on the issue, with the Prime Minister refusing to have an urgent debate about the matter. Things changed when MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando came up with his 'return to sender' idea of towing migrants back to international waters. Back then a couple of PN exponents gave him a sound drubbing in print.
However, JPO had struck a chord with the masses. They wrote in, congratulating him for having highlighted the problem and offering a solution. After the Mistra affair, JPO was back in favour as a useful lightning rod for his party.
MEP hopeful Frank Portelli got stuck in as well, telling us all in annoyingly juvenile textese and capital letters that he was going to BFRANK4U on immigration and that it would be stopped. For him, too, the solution lay with Libya and stopping the invasion from its point of origin.
Portelli was big on capital letters but not so hot on the specifics, except for stating that Gaddafi must be made to understand that we are not the cause of the problem and that we did not colonise any African countries in the past. It is doubtful whether Gaddafi would have appreciated Portelli's history lessons.
The Nationalist Party, however, was very appreciative of this indicator of how to boost popularity in the run-up to the June 6 election. The environment was cleared off the agenda and we began to get almost daily bulletins describing the Nationalist MEPs' endeavours in Brussels. They practically laid claim to the paternity for all the positive developments at European level and blamed the European Green and Socialist groups for hampering their efforts.
Lately the PN media have been insisting that these groups supported extending voting rights to migrants, cunningly omitting to mention the fact that such rights would only be granted to legally established residents to vote in local elections and only at the national government's discretion.
The Labour Party has largely matched the PN's approach in making the right noises at appropriate intervals regarding the immigration issue. However, Joseph Muscat slipped up when he accused the government of being spineless for accepting a boatload of 66 migrants. Besides disregarding the humanitarian dimension of the situation, he dismissed the fact that the will of the Maltese authorities had prevailed in the previous incident.
In his haste to criticise the government he failed to consider the possibility that a similar incident might ensue and that the government would not give in to Italy's demands.
This is what in fact happened, making Muscat's words ring hollow and providing grist for the PN's media mill.
It is Labour slip-ups such as these which may have given the PN the edge on this issue - an advantage which they may retain till June.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt