Presidency paroxysm

It just does not bode well for the start of Malta’s presidency of the European Council. While Malta should be united and proud at this historical moment, what we are seeing is a mounting crescendo of paroxysm of attacks, vituperation and claims and counterclaims, libel cases and whatnot.

Any one turning over the pages of this or any other paper these days stands to lose count of the many issues that have surfaced.

The issues have proliferated, the split or branched away so that as one can see from the issues paged side by side on page 2 of this issue, it is even difficult for a person who is conversant with what is going on in Malta to keep up with the ins and outs of each issue.

If all this is difficult for the Maltese to understand, (and one has to factor in also the Maltese-language papers who can be more partisan and outspoken what they say) this is downright incomprehensible for the

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Commission, the news media, the ministers and later on the heads of government who will be coming to Malta. While they may be thinking they are coming to a model EU member state which has done well in the difficult economic crisis, a state that has been so bold as to join the EU and later the Euro system, they will now find themselves in a country riven by old feuds, personal enmities, and a deep partisan split.

This is, after all, how we are. So it’s no use papering over the cracks. Every country has its own problems and difficulties.

It is also pertinent to point out that we may be, one can say, in a pre-electoral period and anyone conversant with politics in Malta knows that tempers are already high.

Unfortunately, this also seems to be a time of spin and deviation of attention. The elephant in the room is of course the issue regarding the Panama Papers and the participation or otherwise in them by a government minister and an assistant to the prime minister. It could be, according to some rumours in the press, that there may be some developments in this area today and that points, if it happens, to a spin action.

All this is unfortunate, we should have approached the Presidency in a far different frame of mind. We have said, and we reiterate, that Malta deserves better. To read some comments, some blogs, some speeches is to discover a new low in our perennial feud, an even deeper animosity, a level of hatred, let’s say it, that is as shocking as it is surprising. As our august guests tomorrow sit and enjoy our hospitality, our culture, our pride to be the smallest nation ever to rule over Europe, we should have seen to it that what we present on one level is reflected by all the other levels. Instead, we may be presenting a disjointed, schizophrenic picture of ourselves.