Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1072992
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JANUARY 2019 OPINION Raphael Vassallo It is much harder to create than to destroy A small item in this newspa- per caught my eye this week. The headline was 'AD and PD in talks about possible collaboration', and it featured quotes from AD's Mario Mal- lia and PD's Anthony Butti- gieg: both agreeing that "the two-party system had failed its constituents, creating a monopoly by the govern- ment"; and that "the small political parties can provide a solution [to this problem]." There was also a dissenting opinion by PN MEP hopeful Peter Agius, who held that: "small parties failed to make inroads with the voters;" and "I still believe that the par- ties have to unite behind a national force led by the PN." The article also reveals that talks of an AD/PD alliance are indeed already under way… and given that both parties will be fielding candidates in this year's MEP and local council elections, what this suggests is that there is now a real possibility that a new political grouping may rise to fill the vacuum left by the Nationalist party's spontane- ous combustion. Whether this will actually happen or not is obviously something I cannot predict from now. To be perfectly frank, it doesn't look extreme- ly likely. From my own experi- ence interviewing various members of both those par- ties, I feel the 'broth' would be spoilt by too many competi- tive, domineering would-be 'cooks' (which is incidentally true of all Maltese political parties, and not just those two); and that, in any case, there are fundamental policy/ ideology differences separat- ing the two parties right now. How does one reconcile AD's moderate views on female reproductive rights, with the inflexible approach taken by PD? Will the new party align itself with the European Greens, or the ALDE? Etc, etc. But to be fair, these are issues than can always be ironed out through negotia- tion and compromise. And in any case: whether it turns out to be an alliance between AD and PD, or a new party altogether… there can be little doubt that the time is ripe for a serious discussion about the 'post-PN scenario'. The pros- pect of credible new party, rising to replace the PN as the country's second major politi- cal force, no longer seems the stuff of fantasy (as it always had in the past). And I suspect that many people who may once been proud to identify themselves as 'PN voters', are now beginning to realise this just as much as I did around 10 years ago. Recently, it has become almost impossible to even socialise in this country without being subjected to endless interrogations over 'what can be done to restore the political balance' (by which people usually mean 'to 'rescue the PN from the clutches of the Delia clan'). I myself have been asked, time and again, 'what I would do' to avert Malta's seemingly inevitable slide towards a one-party state; or – even more ambitiously – 'whom I would recommend' to replace Adrian Delia as Opposition leader… without, naturally, forever kissing goodbye to the support of Delia's grassroots voter base. Yet when I give my interloc- utors the answers they seem to be expecting, they always tend to look at me aghast. The reaction I get usually sounds something like… "What do you mean, 'forget the PN, and build up a new party from scratch?' Are you nuts? We're Nationalists. That's our party, and we want it back…" In brief, they all seem to share Peter Agius's grand delusion that the only pos- sible solution to the current impasse is "a national force led by the PN"... even though: a) the PN is very clearly in no position to 'lead' anything at all right now, and; b) the cur- rent impasse is itself a direc- tion consequence of the PN's own implosion. Put simply, the Nationalist Party now struggles to come up with convincing answers to even the most be-all and end-all of all political ques- tions… like, for instance, 'why should I vote for you, and not them?' Not even the tradition- al, time-honoured (and, let's face it, hugely unsatisfactory) answer we always got in the past – i.e., 'because otherwise, there would be no one to counterbalance Labour' – can suffice any longer. How can the PN be expected to 'coun- terbalance Labour'… when we can all see with our own eyes that it cannot even find any balance between its own internal dissenters? (And if you'll allow a small digression: that is what this thing called 'politics' is supposed to be all about, you know. Finding a balance between things…) And besides: unlike any time in its past history, the PN cannot offer a safe haven to adherents of vastly conflicting viewpoints – e.g., the ultra- religious and the extremely liberal – in the name of some 'higher objective' or other: In- dependence, EU membership, and all that. The great ideological battles of yesteryear are now but a fading memory… all that's left is partisan loyalty for its own sake: something the PN can quite simply no longer rely on. Put those two considerations together, and what emerges is a picture of impossibil- ity everywhere you look. It is impossible for the PN to win an election under such circumstances; and it is just as impossible for the PN to pro- vide the level of parliamentary opposition this country so desperately needs. There are other issues, too. Now that the entire PN Whether this will actually happen or not is obviously something I cannot predict from now. To be perfectly frank, it doesn't look extremely likely The prospect of a credible new party, rising to replace the PN as the country's second major political force, no longer seems the stuff of fantasy (as it always had in the past)