Eyeball to eyeball

Last Sunday’s article was built around the hope that we might all focus and keep our balance in the coming election.

It was not to be. As one can see from the comments received, that hope was received with scorn and disdain. The PN grassroots are up in arms and spoiling for a fight.

The same fighting spirit was very evident in the PN leader’s words to the sizeable crowd in Sliema that same morning. And it continued all throughout the week in many other speeches, culminating in Dr Busuttil ripping up the Enemalta contracts in Parliament.

I don’t blame him, for this government keeps piling mistake upon mistake, at all levels and on all fronts. It seems incapable of getting anything right, or of retreating once it understands it has made a mistake. Ever since Konrad Mizzi was outed as having an account in Panama and the Prime Minister, squirming and twisting, refused to sack him, the country has been sliding down a steep slope.

The coming election is thus to be fought on one issue: Government (PL) corruption. This was clear from Dr Busuttil’s words last Sunday and all subsequent speeches and actions by PN. It is also the subject of this afternoon’s demonstration in Valletta.

I questioned last Sunday whether corruption basis enough for an electoral campaign. There was, it’s true, the MaltaToday survey which showed a sizeable majority thinks there is corruption in Malta. I would have expected a concomitant survey to show that corruption is the number one issue in the eyes of many people. In the absence of that, we know that many people feel there corruption is rife in Malta, but we still do not know if those people think this is the most important issue in Malta in 2017.

So what we’re going to get in the coming 12 months is a relentless campaign by the PN on the Muscat government corruption. Not to be outdone, the PL spin machine will come up with its own list of PN corruption, past and present, proven or otherwise. That is what we are in for over the coming year.

It may even get worse. I seem to detect in the present controversy about media law, permits for online sites, registration of media, and so on, all the prerequisites for a civil disobedience campaign which will make Poland’s crisis look like