Mangion and Falzon can dislodge power. But what are they for?

Will the parliamentary vote on the Treaty of Athens be a test for the two new deputy leaders of the Labour Party? No, if what we have in mind is a crucial test of their ability to shape the party.

But the vote will provide a snapshot of what kind of change has been effected in the MLP by the election of Charles Mangion and Michael Falzon.

Currently it seems that the MLP will vote against the ratification of the treaty. Several senior politicians have stated that that is what they will do. Arguably, this is an intellectually consistent stand. But without a doubt, in saying that it represents those who voted no to EU membership, the MLP will also be saying that the Nationalist Party can represent all those Labourites, not to mention swinging voters, who voted yes.

Should this happen, it will be another game to Joe Saliba. This man - with the looks, energy, and grin of a Maltese Woody Woodpecker surveying a luscious forest of votes - will continue to claim, reasonably, that disaffected centrist Labourites can find the PN ready to represent them.

As for the MLP, it will have shown that its public pronouncements are still dominated by internal partisan considerations. The statements of intent with respect to the treaty were made with all eyes focused on what the party delegates, about to vote in the leadership contests, would want.

This is not to deny the considerable achievement of the two new deputy leaders. They have shown that they know how to dislodge and destabilise power within the party. They campaigned as a team; it was known that they were not Alfred Sant's favoured candidates; and their victory shows that Dr Sant can no longer count on the support of the majority of the party delegates. Faced with alternative contenders for the leadership, he might well have lost.

The new deputy leaders also each had a measure of luck. Dr Mangion was lucky that the popular Marie Louise Coleiro self-destructed. Dr Falzon was lucky that Evarist Bartolo, whose abilities are widely recognised, was severely damaged by Dr Sant's decision to run for leader. Mr Bartolo was punished for the sins of his friend.

But all these are considerations to do with politics as a power-game. Of course they have some relevance for national electoral politics. Dr Falzon, who is from Sliema and is popular with the Cospicua delegates, might manage to win back the fourth Labour seat on the second electoral district and claw some vital No. 1 votes on the 10th district.

But it is naïve to think of political power as just a game. To win elections, a party needs to master a second kind of power: the ability to create public values, or to find a new way of sharing values. It is the power that comes from stating what you are for - and attracting people to subscribe to your positive vision.

The two new deputy leaders have yet to show what access they have to such power. Wanting to hint at the political vision that might lie before the mind's eye of the two men, some press reports have spoken of the links Dr Mangion and Dr Falzon have to George Abela, and of their occasional violent disagreements with Dr Sant on policy issues.

It is my distinct impression that the links with Dr Abela are being over-drawn. There is a political affinity between the two deputies and Dr Abela, but there is also serious disagreement - about values, not just tactics.

As for the stories of disagreements with Dr Sant, I know no one who has witnessed them. The only person currently active in the MLP of whom such stories are told by witnesses is John Attard Montalto, who gives as good as he gets. ("I have never seen anyone talk to Dr Sant in that way," marvelled one member of the executive, after the meeting in which Dr Attard Montalto addressed Dr Sant as "Dr U-Turn").

Indeed, it is telling that currently Dr Attard Montalto is the only Labour MP telling us what his vision of decentralised power is. Despite the 70 votes he obtained in the leadership contest, Dr Attard Montalto's stature has grown during these four weeks.

Lynn Chircop he is not. I calculate he obtained at least a third of his fellow parliamentarians' votes, and to a degree they look to him to say in public things they would, if they could afford to. On the other hand, the aplomb with which he accepted the legitimacy of Dr Sant's victory (the mix of oblique jibe and red roses) - in contrast with Anglu Farrugia's bitterness - have made him a figure which Dr Sant's supporters might sometimes need.

It is a measure of the change perceptible in the MLP that Dr Attard Montalto feels he can enjoy speaking his mind. But it is also a measure of how far the MLP has to go that the only MP giving us gobbets of his vision is a man who, within his party, is regarded as a lone operator with an impish sense of humour.