1. The current arrangement is not a coalition. It’s cohabitation, stupid.
2. Gonzi’s right to govern is as legitimate today as it was on March 10th 2008.
3. There has still not been a successful vote of no confidence in this government. There is therefore no reason for this government to resign.
4. The cohabitation is based on an agreement on the electoral manifesto – a surprising revival of the role of the electoral manifesto. So long as the PN sticks to the manifesto JPO will vote along with the PN (funny how we thought it was the duty of every MP to do that).
5. Speculation on the date of an electoral showdown has to be linked to the eventuality of a meltdown in parliament – with JPO pulling the plug. Chances of an early post-summer election are increasing.
6. Considering that there is a world outside Malta and that September 12th is an important day for the European Emergency Economy measures (on that day a German court will rule whether the measures comply with national law), do not underestimate the importance of the next Budget. Will this financial measure be the PN’s trojan horse – forcing JPO to vote it down and call it a day or will efforts be made to get this through before any electoral gamesmanship comes into play?
7. Distractions will abound over the summer. Don’t expect them to be relevant to the election or to the next choice that the electorate has to make with regards to what is the best choice for the next government.
7.1 Note to Labour: try spending your holidays getting acquainted with that piece of paper we call the constitution. It helps to be informed.
7.2 Note to John Dalli: Let us forget for one minute the decorum that should be associated with the post of a Commissioner of the European Union, I would suggest a chat with Neeli Kroes. Given how she is Commissioner for the Digital Agenda she might know a thing or two about blogs, comments and hacks. What you saw were not blogs. Thanks to Josanne Cassar who runs an interview website we found out how to access these “blogs”: google : “john dalli cv eu”. Turns out that the “blogs” are one-post wonders – simple setups that were created on anonymous sites to disseminate information about alleged discrepancies in John Dalli’s CV. The only relevant point here is whether it was someone from within the PN doing this job – as in we would confirm the obvious: that internal party struggles get dirty. Nothing to write home about – let alone write to the police. It figures though, no real bloggers are involved in this mess. No, John, not even the Bidnija Witch.
7.3 Franco Debono will continue his zen blogging on www.francodebono.com and expect blog posts to become more frequent whenever the media finds another focus. JPO is set to become resident pundit on Labour media while the Times of Malta will continue to print anything that it receives in its newsroom from garbled press releases to unconfirmed allegations to the coma-inducing comments in the comment boards.
7.4 Boiler Number 7. Where are you?
8. You will not be able to discuss and compare the political party’s electoral proposals over a glass of wine by the sea in the evening. You have no policies to discuss yet. You just have Dallas, Dynasty, Eastenders and more being played out on the news. If it’s not a Commissioner riding the wave of disgruntlement to repeat a nauseating grudge then it’s the media spin about “coalitions” and how wrong they are for the country.
When if we were judging by the choices that people made last election then the worst thing the country can do is vote the PLPN duopoly back into parliament.
And whaddayouknow? It will.
