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Karl Schembri
There was no hint of Viagra in his two-hour speech, no dramatic outbursts or overly confrontational rhetoric which he tends to resort to sporadically. Labour leader Alfred Sant was sober and composed, at times dull, last Wednesday, as he gave his reply speech to the Prime Minister’s budget in Parliament, occasionally pulling Lawrence Gonzi’s leg with his maverick imagery coming from his luggage as a seasoned writer.
His only major setback, for those who watched him on television, was backbencher MP Silvio Parnis with his ruffled yet gelled hair trying to fit into the frame just behind his leader.
As is his custom in criticising Nationalist budgets, Sant started off by disputing the very figures and statistics, relying on a GRTU report instead commissioned to economist Joseph Falzon. He criticised not just the figures used in the budget speech, but also those used in most of Gonzi’s own statements in the weeks before, a whole litany of quotes with perhaps the most classic one being that of the prime minister boasting of doing miracles but alas the people were not even realising.
“When I heard this speech I asked myself, why does Doctor Gonzi get offended when I call him Blessed (Beatu)?” Sant said. “He’s confirming how right I am, because as far as I know to become Blessed you shouldn’t smile, you should first perform a miracle.”
The ‘smile’ kept resurfacing in his speech, obviously trying to condition the ever-smiling prime minister and playing on the nuance of the Maltese word which means to deceive, through what he called “fabulous promises of records and miracles that will remain forever in limbo, a place which we now know that may not even exist”.
But more than attacking the budget itself, Sant made a scathing attack on some of the government’s disasters, from hospital queues to the abortive tourism branding campaign. More importantly, he took the opportunity to make a toned-down electoral speech that calms down the people and businesses through his responsible decision to stick to the government’s decision to adopt the euro, even if there had to be a change in government halfway through the process.
The PN was quick to call it a U-turn because of the Opposition’s caution not to rush for the euro changeover, and Sant is not new to them, but on this one it can hardly be called a change in policy and should have been welcomed as a mature commitment taken in the national interest.
But the declaration to hit the headlines and which got all the people talking was his promise to slash the water and electricity surcharge by 40 to 50 per cent, besides capping government’s income from VAT on fuel.
He said he will reduce Enemalta’s inefficiencies by 20 to 25 per cent, but how he will make up for the rest of the international price hike of oil remains a mystery.
And he promised to take inflation head on – that most elusive element in the finance ministry’s equations which Gonzi himself admits he has next to no control on.
Good sedatives, perhaps, coming from the leader of a party that has been in Opposition for far too long, but after the effects of sedation subside, Sant himself might be faced with a sky-high pile of reports and abbozzi, of promised “miracles” that would need a new Blessed to get them delivered. In the meantime just stay calm and enjoy the trip.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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