Austin Gatt plays for time as Budget day approaches

Malta's acquisition of London's troublesome 'bendy buses' may have been the source of merriment at the UK Conservative Party conference this week; but Transport Minister Austin Gatt may yet have the last laugh, as a ruling by the Speaker of the House buys his government precious time to plan a long election campaign

Successful attempts to derail the motion of censure on the privatisation of parking areas has left the Nationalist Party and Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt with some precious breathing space to plan the next move.

Yesterday, Gatt's closest aides talked of the minister as 'singing' in reaction to the decision, by the Speaker of the House Michael Frendo, to have the agenda decided by Parliament's House Business Committee: a ruling Frendo himself attributed to the fact that "all the keys are in the Government's hands."

Monday's decision effectively means that the parliamentary debate on the motion will be postponed indefinitely. This suits both Gatt himself, and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi: who has been advised to present the budget as his electoral programme, and is banking on the fact that maverick backbencher Franco Debono will vote against the budget and in line with the Labour opposition.

It is understood that Gonzi's strategy is to blame Debono for scuttling a favourable budget, thus killing two birds with one stone: earning public sympathy and also directing opprobrium towards the Ghaxaq for 'ruining' an otherwise generous and popular budget.

Dr Franco Debono on Monday reiterated his threat to withhold support for government for as long as Austin Gatt was retained as minister. 

He has also told close colleagues that he is not happy with Health Minister Joe Cassar and Consumer Minister Jason Azzopardi.

The PM's advisors have interpreted a no vote from Franco Debono as an additional plus for Gonzi's credibility. Though none of the surveys appears to indicate any major shift towards the PN, the Prime Minister reportedly remains confident that he can swing this one in his favour. 

His approach is supported by Austin Gatt, who has been entrusted with formulating the bulk of the PN's campaign strategy.

The Prime Minister is also hoping that the budget will be defeated, and that the country will then enter into a long election campaign.  This is considered to work to the PN¹s advantage, as the ruling party is banking on the Labour party's aptitude to make tactical mistakes that can easily be taken advantage of. According to this line of reasoning, the longer the campaign, the likelier the chance of Labour shooting itself in the foot.

To date, the ability of the PN spin machine to take advantage of Muscat's 'minimum wage' comment is perhaps the best example of the party's capability to score unexpted points over their adversaries.

On its part, the Labour Party has reverted to reticence and caution - wishing to avoid being blamed for calling an early election.  Yesterday, PL leader Joseph Muscat made it abundantly clear that he would not call for a vote of confidence in the Gonzi administration. 

The decision may well be linked to an appreciation of how the PN can easily project the image that the PL is power hungry and only interested in getting into Castille as quickly as possible.

But the PN has also interpreted this as Muscat's refusal to place full trust in Franco Debono, after his previous failure to support a motion of no confidence in Austin Gatt last January.