Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1437264
NEWS ANALYSIS 7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 DECEMBER 2021 Hardline Gonzi risks upsetting Grech's apple cart JAMES DEBONO THE Nationalist Party has been cagey about withdrawing the can- nabis bill that has legalised recre- ational cannabis and home-grow- ing. A commitment would be a strategic mishap working to Labour's electoral benefit. It may well suit the party to put the issue to rest, maybe promising a review of the new law after five years to assess its impact. But the temptation to rally be- hind the anti-cannabis banner is great as a way of short-circuiting the party's own identity prob- lem, with a battlecry that res- onates with respectable NGOs like Caritas and a segment of M.O.R. voters who settled for decriminalisation but consider cannabis clubs a step too far. Repealing a law is after all the logical consequence for today's negative vote in parliament. But in that case the PN will have to come with a proposal which retains some form of sanction against users who will be forced back to buy cannabis from the illegal market. Ironically it was Grech who first recognised that the canna- bis law "should first and fore- most have tackled how cannabis can be purchased." Ironically at that stage, while Labour seemed bent on limiting the new law to decriminalisation, it was Grech who warned "the relaxation of laws would simply strengthen the black market unless a pro- posal was made that addressed how smokers can purchase the plant". And this is exactly what the government has done and what the PN is now opposing. A broken church The problem for the PN is that instead of providing it with a unifying battlecry for the par- ty's broad church, such a stance would further alienate the par- ty's liberal wing, crippling any recovery among presently dis- illusioned voters who shun La- bour's corruption and Lawrence Gonzi's conservatism in equal measure. In fact the major problem with Gonzi's intervention in the debate is that it resurrects memories of the party's recent opposition to divorce, and its enforcement of outdated cen- sorship laws while in office. The party can only ignore these vot- ers' aversion to its repressive streak, to its own peril. Ironically on the day when the party should be riding high on voters' outrage at Robert Abe- la's reluctance to immediately sack Justyne Caruana following a damning report by the Stand- ards Commissioner, the party finds itself facing calls by a for- mer leader to go overboard in opposing a law which was part- ly endorsed by its own leader in October. Grech's inconsistency The PN's conundrum is ex- acerbated by clear indications that its leader Bernard Grech is not opposed to the law and that the party's parliamentary group overruled him. Grech came close to endorsing the law when back in October he took cred- it for the inclusion of cannabis clubs in the law, by saying: "the government amended its pro- posal in line with what I said, through the introduction of as- sociations by membership" ; and that he looked forward to the publication of the actual Bill "so that we can have a serious dis- cussion about this in Parliament and submit the amendments necessary." Instead, following a parliamen- tary group meeting last month, the party decided to oppose the new law in principle while fail- ing to submit legal amendments in committee to address the concerns raised by the NGOs. Labour gains, PN losses The major problem for the PN is that while apprehension on the new law is unlikely to result in a loss of votes for La- bour, opposition to the new law is a likely vote-loser for the PN. Those opposed to cannabis use will not be losing anything, and their concerns have been partly addressed by retaining the ban on smoking weed in public. But those who use cannabis recreationally will no longer live in fear of being arrested and would no longer have to have recourse to the black market to buy their stuff. The PN's central argument against the law – that it would "normalise drug use" – is itself disproved by provisions of the new law against cannabis smok- ing in public, restricting the con- sumption of cannabis to private homes. This makes it easier for Labour to depict the PN's op- position to the law, as support for police intrusion in people's homes. And while apprehension on the new law exists among Labour's own dormant, socially conserv- ative wing, as demonstrated by the stance taken by President emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, who signed an appeal by NGOs calling for amendments for the new law, it is unlikely that this will result in any signif- icant amount of Labour voters shifting to the PN. A segment of Labour voters thinks the party has gone too far in its liberal direction, but La- bour's media has found it easy to deflect criticism on the bill itself, by focusing on the contradic- tions of the Opposition leader. And PN voters who either use cannabis recreationally or who have family members who do so may actually change their vote, if the PN turns cannabis repeal into its next rallying cry. A question of fairness Electoral calculations apart, the PN is ignoring the unfair- ness of the present situation, which sees people arrested and held for questioning despite the 'decriminalisation' law approved in 2015. This is because the amount decriminalised in the half-baked law was a meagre 3.5 grams, and also because police could still question users about the source of their provision. Once again the PN is reneg- ing on its liberal credentials and finds itself defending a re- pressive legal regime. Back in February, in reaction to the Val- entine Day's arrest of a couple in a hotel room for possessing a small amount of cannabis, MEP Roberta Metsola asked" "Are we really still charging teenagers for smoking a joint in a hotel room?", adding, "If only we went after the corrupt with the same fervour, our country might just move forward." Yet it is now Metsola's party which is insisting on keeping the law, which led to this arrest in the first place. Ultimately by indirectly sug- gesting that his party should commit to reverse the newly ap- proved cannabis law, Lawrence Gonzi not only makes it harder for Bernard Grech to defuse the cannabis issue before it blows in the party's face in the next elec- tion, but has resurrected mem- ories of his time in government, characterised by his opposition to divorce and imposition of censorship laws, which alienat- ed a generation of voters who grew up associating the PN with Gonzi's intransigent stance on moral issues. Gonzi himself has not directly called on the PN to commit it- self for withdrawing the bill. It may well trigger the collection of signatures for an abrogative ref- erendum, spearheaded by NGOs who would take the lead. But even this would inevitably drag the PN into a culture war that further erodes its fragile coalition of liberal and conserv- ative voters, handing Labour another golden opportunity to project itself as the defender of a more liberal and progressive country. Understandably the PN may be wary of a re-edition of a 'Kristu Iva, Cannabis le' kind of cam- paign. Lawrence Gonzi's call for a campaign to overturn the newly approved cannabis law by "any legitimate means" adds pressure on the PN to commit itself to withdraw the Bill in its electoral manifesto. Will this give the party a stronger identity or will it further undermine the liberal conservative coalition? Former PN leader Lawrence Gonzi