Editorial

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's motion to Labour Party delegates for a future MLP to renegotiate the agreement with the European Union, widely interpreted at high Labour levels as effectively meaning taking Malta out of the EU, has put the party in a most agonising state. It has been long since the MLP faced such a delicate dilemma as that it is facing now following the sharp U-turn it has made in its policy over Malta's membership of the EU after losing both the referendum and the election earlier this year.

The problem for the party now is that even as they frantically try to work their way out of the maze they had themselves created over the years through their misguided anti-EU policy, all the indications suggest the worst is far from over yet. Indeed, they have yet to get over the biggest hurdle - Dr Mifsud Bonnici's own motion at the general conference next month.

With the party leadership visibly at pains to sound as coherent and convincing as possible many MLP supporters can hardly believe the metamorphosis their party is going through before their very own eyes.

It is as if they cannot even believe what is happening. One correspondent has gone so far as to suggest taking "Labour" out of the party's name. It may very well be unthinkable but it indicates the anger, deep sense of frustration and even betrayal a swathe of supporters are feeling today by the change in policy.

Turning down Dr Mifsud Bonnici's motion at the MLP's conference is unlikely to bring about immediate stability to Labour either for the former leader himself has gone on record saying that he planned to continue holding his ground. The outlook for Labour then is absolutely confusing and messy, at least for the foreseeable future.

Against Dr Mifsud Bonnici's clinically logical arguments against Labour's stand today vis-à-vis their pre-referendum and election policy, Labour's arguments sound incredibly unconvincing. They are fashioning their new policy out of convenience rather than conviction, something which their own supporters are reading through in all that their leaders are saying today.

For a Labour overview that confirms this in no uncertain manner, there is hardly any better material than that provided by George Vella, the former foreign affairs shadow minister.

In an interview in the party's own newspaper, he said the first question he would put to those who still had valid doubts about the party's stand today was: "Do we want to see the Labour Party remaining in opposition? We agree that we do not". He argued that to win back power, they had to keep their feet to the ground and live today's reality.

Dr Vella feels the MLP was the best party to run the country under EU rules. But if Labour is finding it so hard to convince its own supporters of the validity of the U-turn it has made since the election, how can it begin to expect the rest of the population, particularly those who are truly convinced that Malta's place is in the EU, to believe in their new policy, much as this is welcome in a democracy?

Of course, part of the reason may lie in the fact that Alfred Sant has lost a lot of credibility and support and yet he is still at the top, irrespective of the fact that the MLP tries to sell the idea of a "new" leadership. It is, alas, a "new" leadership with a strong tinge of the "old". And that arrangement just cannot work.