local news

No nonsense PM breaks with protocol

Taking advantage of the mid-term Prime Minister Fenech Adami is in no mood to be told how the run his business. He has broken with protocol and the normal communications strategy and directly queried press reports.
The change in tactics points to a realisation that the communications machine within the government and the Nationalist party needs some serious oiling.
Riding high on the premise that he is the person who took Malta out of a rut and into prosperity, the 67-year-old Prime Minister has snubbed all suggestions of a cabinet reshuffle.
The B’Kara politician, who has been at the helm of the Nationalist party for the last 23 years, knows that to alter the tempo would spell disaster for the country when it comes to presenting the next budget.
The Prime Minister is suffering from the same backlash that Alfred Sant experienced in the summer of 1998 after he implemented his austerity measures.
But the Nationalist premier stands a better chance than Alfred Sant, who had to wrestle with the wrath of one single backbencher - Dom Mintoff - the father figure of the Labour party.
The Fenech Adami government suffers no internal revolt and only those that lack political experience have had the gall to express their true views.
The saviour in this scenario appears to be the timing of the legislature and the future of the economy.
If the latter fails to take off then one should expect little or no empathy from the uneasy Nationalist electorate.
And Dr Fenech Adami still faces a barrage of challenges; local elections, the national election and the referendum on Malta’s entry into the European Union.