Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/835410
25 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JUNE 2017 Opinion Otherwise, the same blunders that engineered this catastrophic defeat will concretise, and set the template for the Nationalist Party's future. The second thing to do was formulate a step-by-step strategy to translate that goal into a reality. Part of this would have involved the (provable) corruption allegations, yes; but only part. Other steps would have included identifying specific demographic segments that could be swayed on other issues. There were plenty of people who had reason to be uncomfortable with Muscat's style of government. And their reasons had nothing whatsoever to do with Panama-style corruption. One segment I would have targeted was the growing number of people who face financial difficulties on account of sky-rocketing rental accommodation prices. Thousands were (and still are) being pushed below the poverty line under a supposedly Socialist government; this creates a groundswell of discontent that could easily (and successfully) have been tapped into by an Opposition... or at least, by an Opposition that was actually trying to win an election, instead of only trying to get the prime minister and his wife arrested. You could add other voter segments and issues to the list; the point is that the PN simply forgot about all that. It campaigned as if the only people who really mattered was a tiny minority of privileged, entitled, comfortable and (let's face it) spoilt specimens of human being, who now inform us they feel 'superior to all the other shits'. It's not the only thing the PN's core strategy group forgot. They also forgot the lesson of the 1987 election, in which Opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami took great pains to reassure 'Labour voters of good will' that their jobs and livelihoods would not be threatened by a Nationalist win. Today's PN did the opposite. At one point Busuttil even said he wanted Malta's institutions to be 'Labour-proof '... and of course, it was duly seized on by Muscat in the final debate, to signify that an incoming PN administration would conduct a witch-hunt for 'Laburisti' across the full spectrum of the public service. OK, we can argue about what Busuttil actually meant till we (literally) turn blue in the face. It hardly matters; anyone from a Labour background, and who might have been tempted to vote Nationalist in this election, would obviously have been put off. I reckon the PN might have lost thousands of votes on the strength of that single, ill- considered remark alone. Yet another thing the PN completely lost sight of is that any winning campaign strategy has to be built on two separate platforms. One of these platforms concerns discrediting the political adversary; undermining public trust; yes, even 'demonising', if you want to use that word. I'm not saying campaigns should be squeaky clean and polite. An element of aggression is vital (even more so, when your adversary is miles ahead of you in the trust ratings). But that cannot be the only foundation from which to launch a successful electoral bid. The other platform – completely missing in this election - concerns rebuilding your own trust with the electorate; trying to convince a sceptical public (which has good reason to be sceptical, given the PN's own record) that a Nationalist government would be stable, unthreatening and prosperous. I didn't see even the ghost of an attempt in this direction by the PN in this election. They seemed to seriously think that attacking Joseph Muscat, on its own, would somehow magically translate into support for their own party. I could go on, but you can see where all this is heading. The Nationalist Party lost this election because it allowed itself to be hijacked by a tiny coterie of diehard supporters who are a) completely out of touch with the reality at street-level, and; b) completely clueless when it comes to what it takes to actually win an election. And I find this truly amazing, considering that the PN was until recently an unstoppable election- winning machine, appealing to all sectors of society, and literally brimming with talented and focused electoral strategists. On a more positive note, the extent of the defeat in this election now gives the PN an opportunity to change course. It can (and must) rebuild itself – slowly and painfully – but it cannot hope to do so if it continues listening only to the people who have done it so much harm... while dismissing or alienating all the people who might actually be of help. Otherwise, I greatly fear there won't even be a PN in the near future. And that won't be good news to anybody.