A new spring...

The huge gains achieved by the Labour Party and the heavy losses suffered by the Nationalist Party in yesterday week's local council elections, indicate that a new spring has arrived in these islands.

Most of our citizens want the country to have a fresh start. Since the April 2003 general election, the Nationalist Party has lost one election after another. Last Saturday's results and last year's results show that the majority of voters want to punish the Nationalist Party for betraying them. Local council election results show that most of the voters want to reward the Labour Party councillors for doing a good job in running local councils.

The majority of voters also seem fed up with the vigorous negative campaigning of the Nationalist Party. Instead of using most of its resources, energy and ideas to solve the problems that the country is facing, the Nationalist Party is behaving simply like an electoral propaganda machine carrying out misinformation campaigns to scare away voters from the Labour Party.

The Nationalist Party is failing even in this now, as for the last two years it has failed to impress the voters, and so the majority of our citizens has turned against the Nationalist Party either by withholding its vote or by voting Labour or Alternattiva Demokratika.

Still euphoric after its April 2003 victory, the Nationalist Party promised a new everlasting spring for Malta. On the occasion of the opening of the tenth parliament in May 2003, the Nationalist government presented its programme heralding new times for our country: "This is indeed the dawn of a new spring." The commitment was taken to "... change all that we have allowed to deteriorate, stagnate or to go wrong through lethargy, carelessness or lack of thought."

Since then, nearly two years have passed and it is now clear to the majority in Malta and Gozo that the Nationalist Party cannot deliver a new spring and that the country needs a fresh start. This fresh start cannot come about with cosmetic internal changes in the Nationalist Party in government. The PN has changed its leader, its deputy leader, and brought in some new faces in the Cabinet but these changes have not improved matters for the party or the country.

A fresh start

Malta can only have a fresh start if there is a change in government, ready to give the country a new sense of direction and bring in new ministers to give the country a much needed new lease of life. The longer the Nationalist Party remains in power, the more difficult it is going to be for this country to have a fresh start, the more difficult it is going to be for the Labour government to start clearing up the mess left by the Nationalist government.

During the coming months the Labour Party must start behaving like a government in waiting, with a set of economic and social policies that will be an action plan for the salvation of Malta and Gozo. The Labour Party must not allow the incessant negative campaigning of the Nationalist Party to deter it from pushing ahead with the wide-ranging consultation programme it is carrying out - in the party and in the country - to shape its new policies as the way forward for the country.

After losing the trust of the majority of the electorate and unable to regain it till it loses power, the Nationalist Party will spend the rest of its days in government trying to persuade as many as possible, that however bad the PN is, the Labour Party is worse. So it will campaign to denigrate Labour in every possible way and make people believe that in these dark times, the MLP offers no new hopes for a brighter future.

Can the Nationalist Party recover the ground it has lost since April 2003? During the referendum and general election campaigns of that year it promised huge funds from the European Union. The people were told that the country's finances were in very good shape, that economic prosperity, a new way of doing politics, new civil rights, a better quality of life, a new everlasting spring... were all round the corner... provided that the majority voted again for another five years of Nationalist government.

Many people who voted for another five years of Nationalist government now feel cheated and betrayed. The huge funds from the EU have failed to materialise. Taxes and prices of public utilities have gone up, hurting thousands of families and pensioners and making it more difficult for businesses to operate in a viable and sustainable way. People are losing jobs and no fresh investment is coming in to create new ones.

The country needs new policies to create jobs, and a new burst of energy by government to tackle the lack of investment, bring down high taxation and have fairer and efficient governance. 

The country faces tough challenges: regenerating the economy, creating jobs and wealth and instilling fresh life into public structures and services to equip Malta and Gozo to survive and thrive in the 21st century. Wide-ranging problems: a debilitating structural deficit and public debt, environmental degradation, lack of fresh investment, deindustrialisation, loss of economic competitiveness, a stagnant tourism industry, decaying public institutions, a corrosive culture of cronyism... have been allowed to pile up, their solution put away for another year.

Last Saturday's local council election results show that more people are convinced that we cannot face these tough challenges with "more of the same" mindset that the Gonzi cabinet is immersed in. We need a change in government so that the country can have a fresh start.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com