We narrowed the gap because we are regaining trust

A week has passed since the results of the local elections became known.

These were the elections which Joseph Muscat had tried to avoid holding, by postponing them for a number of years. The results these elections yielded seem to give us the hindsight to understand why he had tried so hard not to have this round.

The elections came at a crucial point in the current legislature. Just two years after being carried to power by a landslide victory fuelled by promises about anything to just about everybody, and the subsequently proved hollow mantra of Malta Taghna Lkoll, Joseph Muscat and his Labour felt that they should not be subjected to this test of the level of public support which they still enjoy.

These two years have not been a rosy time.

We have seen environmental concerns being thrown out of the window, with carte blanche being given to unbridled development practically everywhere. We had the embarrassing national issue of the sale of our national identity through the notorious citizenship scheme, a scheme that generated negative press world-wide, and was also challenged by Joseph Muscat’s Socialist partners in the European Parliament.

We have seen a failed attempt at cold-blooded pushback of migrants by our Prime Minister, who since then seems to have found a conscience somewhere in his repertoire of gimmicks, and is now shedding crocodile tears.

We have seen a Cabinet which has lost no fewer than four of its original members to various factors - dissent with the Prime Minister, being too popular for the Prime Minister’s liking and hence kicked upstairs and safely out of the way, or outright fired for the covering up of the scandal of the policeman/driver shooting.

We have seen the proverbial cherry on the cake with the still ongoing saga of the Café Premier scandal, where over four million euros of public monies changed hands in a deal fraught with allegations of wrongdoing, including by the office of the Auditor General.

We have seen the highest fuel prices in Europe being paid by Maltese consumers, notwithstanding the plummeting international fuel prices. We have seen appointments and promotions being handed out on the meritocratic scale of political affiliation, including to ministers’ wives, with competent and serious professionals being kicked out to make way for what we have come to know colloquially as Taghna Lkollers.

I could go on and on, querying certain associations with individuals and countries, such as Azerbaijan, which we are seeing developing on a daily basis, but I am sure that most of us are well aware of the track record of Joseph Muscat’s first two years in power.

And this awareness has manifested itself quite clearly in the polls we had just a few days ago. No amount of juggling with numbers, and stretching numbers to pull wool over a segment of the population’s eyes will hide a simple fact – that the gap between Joseph Muscat’s Labour and the Nationalist Party has narrowed significantly.

A certain number of people have expressed their disapproval at this style of government. Publicly made promises of transparency, accountability and meritocracy were not kept, while the secret ones with developers and certain prominent individuals were immediately rewarded.

The results however do not mean that the Nationalist Party has won back the support it had enjoyed for a long time. It is a very good indication that we are listening and being listened to, and that our message is getting through. The narrowing of the gap is a sign that people are increasingly feeling let down by Joseph Muscat’s Labour, and slowly beginning to trust the Nationalist Party more and more.

We are still far from arriving where we want to be, but we are happy that these results have pointed us squarely in the right direction. Much more work needs to be done, and will be done. We shall continue to be the people’s Opposition, the voice which will say 'no' on behalf of the people, and who will say 'yes' constructively when the initiatives are worthwhile.

For the momentum which has started to continue to build up, all of us need to continue to pool our efforts, to continue to re-establish links with people, and to understand more so that in our turn we shall be understood and trusted more.

Two messages came out of this result. For us, it was encouraging, but for Joseph Muscat’s Labour it was the oft repeated sentence that ‘You can fool some people for some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people for all of the time’. This is the first crack shown in Joseph Muscat’s seemingly unassailable armour.

There will be more.

Chris Said is secretary-general of the Nationalist Party