The succession of political crises that occurred over the last few years and months have shaken the government and opposition parties to the core, leaving them both trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered credibility.

In these circumstances, there is more than ever the need for a third political force strong enough to pose some threat to the electoral support of the other two parties.

When by its weakness the opposition party fails to keep the governing party in check, who will do so?

Effective accountability – of both the government and the opposition – requires more than a brave civil society movement and a handful of courageous investigative journalists.

In combination, these two have managed to change the recent course of politics but, with their limited resources, they cannot be expected to wage the daily battles of scrutiny needed to keep the government on its toes all the time.

A well-resourced third political party is needed in the mix.

When the perception grows that both major parties are beholden to big business, then a third party that operates with no strings attached could become a reference point for the disillusioned among the electorate.

When corruption has run rampant within the higher echelons of power and the opposition party leadership itself is tarnished with suspicions of abusive practices, who can redeem the political class if not a third party that is seen as credible when it presents its political vision, values and ideals?

A simple example of how dangerously toothless the opposition has become in the ordinary running of the country is its silence on the disastrous decisions made by the government to allow mass gatherings and invite COVID-19 to spread.

It took the vociferous objections and threats by the doctors’ and nurses’ unions to force a part-reversal of that position.

It is Malta’s revolving door politics of the last few decades that has led to this crisis of democracy.

A strong third party could go some way towards ridding Malta of the hegemonies that can wreak so much damage in the wrong hands.

It is a pity that the Maltese are so wary of small parties and of coalition governments. They see the poor example set in Italy, with its frequent turnover of administrations. But that is the exception not the rule. Nearly every advanced European democracy and economy have been run efficiently by coalition governments for decades. These include countries that are a paragon of stability such as Germany, The Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.

The impending merger of Alternattiva Demokratika and Partit Demokratiku will not be able to offer this sort of political landscape, at least not yet.

It is more likely that a new-look Nationalist Party will become the refuge for many disenfranchised voters.

But AD and PD deserve to be highly admired for trying to change politics, both now and over the past years of their separate existences.

Will the new entity be greater than the sum of its two parts? The two parties appear to have similar philosophies and policies. They might need to form a broader coalition with other groups to be able to appeal to people of diverse political views and offer a serious voting alternative.

They will also have to find ways of surmounting their unfair and hugely disadvantageous position in terms of their difficulty of access to finance and the media, especially when it comes to state and party-dominated television.

The task will not be easy but for the long-term good of this country and the health of our ailing democracy, the effort has to be made.