My interview with Simon Busuttil

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Simon Busuttil at the Granaries, which as one expects is attended by the most loyal of party supporters. Despite occasional booing, the atmosphere was cordial and open.

The interview threw a light on Busuttil’s strategy: that of preserving his party’s presumed authenticity while waiting the elusive moment of Muscat dropping his mask.

As a stalwart of the Christian democratic school told me later, “you tried to position Simon Busuttil ideologically, but he will not move one inch.”

On migration Busuttil hit all the right chords, describing migration as a natural process which cannot be stopped. Regretting the ongoing tragedies, he called on the EU to do more while making it clear that nobody possesses a magic wand to stem the flow, and this is not just an EU or Malta’s problem, but everyone’s problem.

In the meantime the country cries out for an assertive left wing that can confront the present government.

Definitely on this issue he resists falling in the populist trap. He scores well against what Muscat stood for in Opposition.

It was when I quizzed Busuttil on the economy and public services that the Opposition leader pandered to a different kind of populism: an appeal to the taxpayer against rising public debt. Clearly Busuttil has his party’s core constituency of upper-middle class voters in mind.

As expected Busuttil skirted my question on his doomsday pre-electoral prophecies of a Greek-style bailout if Labour is elected. Sure enough Labour should be doing better than the PN at the peak of the global crisis, but Busuttil did not explain how Muscat has so far defied the gloom and doom scenarios.

Like the Chamber of Commerce Busuttil also warned that increased subsidies could turn public transport in to Malta’s new dockyards, defending past decisions to keep subsidies for this essential service in check.

He rightly criticised the shortcomings of the present nationalised bus service which is going to the dogs, while warning against what he describes as a “whirlpool” of subsidies, and forgetting that the Arriva reform failed simply because of a shortage of buses and extended routes which resulted from a shortage of public funds.

Busuttil has a strategy and he will be persisting on this set goal, irrespective of any setback. In some ways it is also an honest but stubborn approach, as it does not seek to genetically alter the PN

Finally he reiterated his party’s belief in restrained public expenditure to reduce fiscal pressure. It is a politically respectable position with which I disagree. 

Even on environmental issues Simon Busuttil sends mixed messages.

Yesterday he sent a strong message against the installation of smart meters on boathouses set on public land. Yet it was clear that this is all that he had to say on this issue and immediately shifted to other matters. But when asked whether he would demolish the boathouses if elected, he cryptically referred to the “rights” enjoyed by pre-1992 boathouses, insisting that in government he would respect these rights. So what’s the use of denying these boathouses a smart meter if they are not going to be demolished anyway?

Even on hunting and trapping, Busuttil remains cautious. When asked on his party’s silence on the derogation allowing trapping, he simply replied that the PN tried to do the same thing in government but failed as it was told that this would be against European law.

On the civil liberties front, Busuttil did move a long way, excluding any changes in the civil union law, which could erode adoption rights if the PN is elected.

For me the most interesting part of the interview was Busuttil’s admission that he will be persisting on a political path, which may not yield results in the immediate future but is willing to wait for the moment when Muscat’s mask falls. What Busuttil seems to be missing is that in the meantime, he has to make strategic inroads in Labour’s electorate, simply for the reason that Labour has become a party reflecting the popular common sense of switchers. 

Busuttil’s interview convinced me that the PN leader has a strategy and that he will be persisting on this set goal, irrespective of any setback. In some ways it is also an honest but stubborn approach, as it does not seek to genetically alter the PN. Yet for people like me who are on the left, the PN will remain distant and alien. In the meantime the country cries out for an assertive left wing that can confront the present government.