Lawrence Gonzi on NET
Published:
June 7, 2009 at 7:26pm
There’s a live press conference on NET right now. I missed most of it so far because the shouting and screaming in red bikini tops on Super One proved much too distracting.
A crowd of thousands and a sea of MLP flags – and not a single European Union emblem to be seen. Not one.
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What do you expect, Daph? They treated the campaign as if it were one for a general election, and are treating the outcome likewise.
Most of those in the “red” crowd have no idea what it was all about, and simply dance to the tune, without even knowing what they are doing. Doesn’t anyone remember when the EU referendum results were out and the “red” crowd was out celebrating “ghax il-partnerxipp rebah”?
Well, we’ve heard it more than once, haven’t we? “Il-partit l-ewwel u qabel kollox.”
I think that says a lot about them, they don’t care about Malta, Europe or anything other than the Labour Party.
They are made to believe that the party is theirs, but the only entity in the relationship owning something is the Labour Party owning their votes.
Dear Daphne,
I am bewildered. I am still watching our Prime minister delivering his speech.
Dr. Gonzi seems not truly understanding the message of this vote. If really he is not the culprits ( Labourites ), will be in a joyfull mood in 4 years time.
I have to admit, I did not vote this time round as I wanted to pass a good message to a party that strived wholeheartedly towards Malta.
Thanks and keep up your good work Daphne.
Deja Vu
I seem to be hearing Alfred Sant again saying, ‘No regrets’ especially when asked about why the people decided to vote as such.
Why don’t we make a quick buck and sell them some EU flags?
It’s not true, they had lots of awkward ones which incorporated Labour and EU flags in one big hamallata flag…
I wish somebody would put out the video of Sciberras Trigona ‘running’ out on stage. Pulcinell.
[Daphne – I’ve just seen it on the news.]
I think I spotted one. But just one.
Hi Daphne,
I watched a bit of the celebrations on television and saw about two or three EU flags and another flag made up of the labour party’s flag and the EU’s.
Even on such trivial matters you are going to try and spin and twist facts?
[Daphne – Three flags, eh? I’m impressed.]
I just heard on Net news that Joseph Muscat confirmed that the Labour Party club did hand out EU flags as freebies to his folla. Imagine the ahna tal-lejber people not knowing what to do with the flags they think are bnadar tal-nazzjonalisti and more so because they’re blue.
Dr Gonzi listed a number of issues which he believed had swayed voters away from PN. But at no stage did he mention the perceived arrogance and general insensitive attitude of the administration. Is he serious? If so, we’re in trouble in four years’ time…
[Daphne – I think he mentioned needing to stay close to the people. Perceived arrogance…..well, I don’t think so. There’s only so much beating yourself up that you should do, especially when there’s so much real arrogance on the other side.]
Tonio Farrugia, I think it’s unfair to accuse the government of “arrogance” and “insensitivity” when you know well that, if anything, it is members of the public who are selfish and inconsiderate. Speaking personally, I’m fed up with the ‘Nazzjonalist muġugħ’ moaning about some favour they did not receive, some MEPA permit or other private issue. Invariably, such people claim to have been at Tal-Barrani and to have suffered “for the party” and invariably they swear that they have never asked for anything “except this once”.
[Daphne – The patronage mentality. I read a very good academic article about votes and favours and attitudes towards politicians in a southern Italian town in the 1950s. It was like reading about Malta in 2009.]
The government should resist the temptation to give in to the grumblers and whiners as it would only give rise to more blackmail. If, for example, someone does not vote PN because they have received a traffic fine, the answer is not to remove the fine but to make such people see how foolish their reaction is. The task of the PN administration is therefore, not to try and appease the unappeasable but to re-establish in the collective conscience the right values and priorities.
We have heard “staying close to the people” being uttered for at least the last two general elections + two MEP elections and yet the PN keeps marching on regardless of the huge disgruntlement of its voters. They are either getting too big-headed or don’t really care if they end up in opposition in a few years time.
One would think that they might have realized what’s wrong by now, but no. We hear the same petty excuses on Net and Radio 101 blaming everyone and everything except themselves.
The PN is heading for a drubbing at the next elections. It’s already getting too late to turn back lost voters. The writing is on the wall!
George, “staying close to the people” means focusing on things like employment opportunities and improving the general standard of living, particularly in the context of the present international situation. It does not mean showering favours and freebies to the so-called “party faithful”. The PN did much better than expected in the last general elections and has won the electorate’s trust for the past three decades so it must be doing something right.
@ Antoine Vella
Focusing on job generation and safeguarding jobs is every democratic government’s duty and I surely don’t have any argument against that. As for improving the general standard of living, well, I’ll let the rest of the population answer that one. I agree that over the past 20 odd years or so the standard of living has improved but has started going down again the last few years and there is no sign of reversing that on the horizon.
I have friends on both sides of the political parties and some reasons I heard from PN supporters as to why they are unhappy are mainly unfair and very doubtful water and electricity bills. Incidentally, why is it that the government always mentions 30,000 families that need social assistance with water and electricity bills – doesn’t this number go up or down over the years? Is it possible that 30,000 families = roughly translated to 25% of the population never improved under 22 years of PN rule?
Issues like illegal immigration, poor roads, road maintenance and pavements after 22 years of empty promises, projects not started, let alone finished, arrogance from ministers (they only remember you before election time, the rest of the years you might as well be dead), poor excuses to collect more taxes like the vehicle eco-tax introduced this year. Has anyone honestly seen an improvement on our roads? The buses saga and many more.
It is issues like these that sway a voter one way or another and not the petty stuff.
Personally, I would not care less if they didn’t change a spent light bulb in my street, or if they allowed hunting on rats, or my hardware store accidentally misplaces my promised light bulbs. I already have dangerous, lunatic drivers to look out for on our roads, thank you.
I don’t care what’s on the other side….. I just want the PN to stop acting nice 5 weeks prior to the election, and then bull the other 5 whole years.
Good to see everybody’s happy. A rarity in Malta. Labour happy with their phyrric victory. Nationalists happy that when all the math is done, they won as well. Seems a bit like the referendum. Although Tonio Borg was emphatic that eventually it will be 3-3, some of my labour friends seem quite certain that the 6th seat will go to Labour. Past predictions having failed to materialise, I tend to believe the former. Why should we begrudge them their celebrations? It is a useless ‘victory’ after all. As long as they only honk horns its OK by me. I have been on the Sliema front during the many PN victories and the only difference is the colour. People still hang our of car windows and ride on car roofs (so much for our EU safety rules) and no one seems to care.
It seems you’ve never seen Italians celebrating a world cup victory.
It will be 3-3 and not 4-2 by a very slim margin if almost all Nationalists did a block vote. If not, then it is trouble for the PN and the sixth seat will go to Labour. Possibly Sharon? I hope not.
Michelle and Joseph holding hands during the national anthem…aren’t you supposed to keep your hands by your side?
DAPH, AM RE-POSTING COMMENT BECAUSE THE LINK WAS NOT OK
Yes, and you’re meant to know the words, too: http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2008/06/10/gather-round-and-turn-up-the-volume/ (Watch Jason closely on this one; no comment about about the man in the pink tie …)
I have just seen the clip – what the hell was Michelle wearing?
@David Buttigieg – Maybe she ran out of silver foil, and borrowed something from a Korean friend.
issa nibdew bit-tattika li kien juza Sant li l-gvern m’ghandux maggoranza warajh u nibdew li l-gvern ha jsejjah elezzjoni bikrija! L-istorja tirrepeti ruha bhal pre 1996.
My guess is that we will not hear much talk of “maġġoranza ġdida”. The MLP spent four years harping on it prior to 2008 and then received an icy shower that froze them solid. They are still suffering from the political frostbite and a repetition of the old slogans would probably bring back too many painful memories.
I dont think it is trivial at all regarding the lack of EU flags. Either they don’t fully understand what they are cheering about or they associate EU flags with the PN.
@ All. Read the following…………and then ask yourself.
What the heck happened here in Malta?
[Daphne – Nothing different, but very much the same: the conservative right wing won the majority of the votes. Please don’t tell me you think the Labour Party is centre-left, liberal or progressive.]
BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe was leaning to the right Sunday as tens of millions of people voted in European Parliament elections, with conservative parties favored in many countries amid a global economic crisis.
Opinion polls showed right-leaning governments edging the opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere. Conservative opposition parties were tied or ahead in Britain, Spain and some smaller countries.
Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and five other EU nations cast ballots in the last three days, while the rest of the 27-nation bloc voted Sunday. Results for most countries were expected later in the day.
With most votes counted in Austria, the main rightist party was gaining strongly while the Social Democrats, the main party in the governing coalition, lost substantial ground.
The big winner was the rightist Freedom Party, which more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13 percent of the vote. It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform, with posters proclaiming “The Occident in Christian hands” and describing Sunday as “the day of reckoning.”
In the Netherlands, exit polls predicted Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic party would win more than 15 percent of the country’s votes, bruising a ruling alliance of Conservatives and Socialists.
For many, the Europe-wide elections were most important as a snapshot of national political sentiment. High unemployment across Europe has increased voter dissatisfaction with mainstream national parties, and skepticism over the EU’s power to help spur economic recovery.
Polls predicted record low turnout and small but symbolically important gains for far-right groups and other fringe parties.
“It shows how divided the center-left forces are at the moment. Normally sitting governments are punished at European elections,” said Jackie Davis, an analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.
Groups like the all-white British National Party could use their EU parliament seats as a platform for their far-right views but were not expected to affect the assembly’s increasingly influential lawmaking on issues ranging from climate change to cell-phone roaming charges.
The parliament can also amend the EU budget — euro120 billion ($170 billion) this year — and approves candidates for the European Commission, the EU administration and the board of the European Central Bank.
Still, many voters consider European Parliament members — who earn euro7,665 ($10,430) a month — to be overpaid, remote and irrelevant.
Polls ahead of Sunday’s vote showed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats leading the center-left Social Democrats in Germany, which holds national elections in September. Merkel hopes to form a center-right government after the national vote with the pro-business Free Democrats.
Voters in Germany are more concerned about the costs of financial intervention than the commitment to job preservation favored by the Social Democrats, said Tanja A. Boerzel, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University.
“The crisis hasn’t affected Germany like it has the USA. Most Germans aren’t struggling as much,” she said.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party has steadily held the lead in polls, with the Socialist Party second.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Freedom People’s Party held a two-digit lead over his main center-left rival in the most recent polling despite a deep recession and a scandal over allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old model.
In Britain, dissident Labour legislators said a plot to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown could accelerate after the party’s expected dismal results in the European elections are announced.
Opponents say the Labour leader has been so tainted by the economic crisis and a scandal over lawmakers’ expenses that the opposition Conservatives are virtually guaranteed to win the next national election, which must be called by June 2010.
Polls favored left-leaning parties in some countries, such as Greece and Portugal.
In Spain, where the recession has driven unemployment to 17.4 percent, Europe’s highest, a close race was expected between the ruling Socialists and the conservative opposition.
Poland’s governing pro-business Civic Platform party was expected to claim around half of the country’s 50 seats, followed by the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party — a shift to the right for Poland at the European parliament.
In Hungary, where the governing Socialist Party raised taxes and cut social programs in a deep financial crisis, the main center-right opposition party, Fidesz, was slated to win at least 15 of 22 seats. Jobbik, a far-right party accused by critics of racism and anti-Semitism, was expected to win one or two.
Exactly the point I wanted to make D. The PL is going with the flow, precisely because it is fast becoming a right wing party.
That’s just my opinion of course…
Shush! Don’t tell Herrn Schulz!
I only watched the first part of the press conference, and frankly it looked like a funeral. It seemed like the Nationalists weren’t expecting such a disappointing outcome, although the results were exactly as had been predicted months ago. Gonzi openly admitted defeat; the subtitles/points at the bottom of the screen seemed to emphasise the most salient points of his argument. Needless to say, he was extremely poised and might I say, a tad contrite.
Seems like Muscat is pushing the ‘we’re young, they’re old’ myth. Progressive my toe.
Hi Daphne,
Could it be that you missed most of the Dr. Gonzi’s speech because you were pooing your intestines out on the toilet. Enjoy the evening dear.
[Daphne – Now why would I do that? I am fortunate in having the sort of life that will go on undisturbed whoever is in government, still less whoever is in the European Parliament. However, I am fascinated to see that, as ever, your average Labour supporter tends to be motivated by the same instincts that drove Madame De Farge. Incidentally, I have a stomach of steel.]
“A crowd of thousands and a sea of MLP flags – and not a single European Union emblem to be seen. Not one.”
if there were no one here would like it, no?
and sorry to say but i saw some
one is the huge 1 labour 1 eu 1 labour 1 eu flag having 9-12 flags tied together
*** BREAKING NEWS***
Joseph Muscat has just given birth. Let’s hope that this will not inspire him to finally tell the world and his wife “where” his twins were conceived.
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=2413
Didn’t I tell you that? HaHa, have you heard the story of Jason Micallef’s mum knitting the very big flag with Labour and EU emblems in it?
Well we had mintoffjani in the Mintoff era, with Muscat’s new movement – Muscatjani
More like a bowel movement.
I think the Labour party and its people were just dying to win some form of election to rub it in the Nationalist Party’s face; hence all the hamalli-ish celebrations. They, however have no idea what the main focus and point of these elections were and they are completely missing the point.
I hope, however, for all of our sakes, that the people elected are competent enough to carry out their aims maturely for the good of our country in the EU and have an idea of what is expected of them more than their followers do. From what I have seen now however, I doubt it.
Did Muscat’s earthquake split Gozo Krakatoa-style? Because they speak of “the Maltese and Gozitan Islands” (sic.) on Maltastar.
When you (Nationalists) play fair, you always loose. And mind you we did not win with a couple of votes like in the 8 March election when Gonzi triumphed with around1500 votes but with 23 times as much, something like 35,000 and counting!!
After all the hype of the past weeks, and today’s election result, ALL parties need to have a reality check. The biggest one should be taken perhaps by the PL, as their supporters will wake up with a gross hang-over tomorrow to realise that Gonzi and the PN are still running the country, and, even worse, that he will be doing so for the next four years.
The PN on the other hand, has to shed its arrogance and realise that they need a few seasoned strategists to dissect the results and to show them the way how to regain the centre-right voters, with clear, strong and up-to-date policies. Gonzi has unfortunately surrounded himself with bureaucrats and technocrats, who tackle particular tasks given to them well and even deliver (pension reform, education reform, local council changes), but who offer no political support, let alone insight in the formulation of party strategy, which is relevant to the 21st century.
As to the AD, AN and the other also-rans, isn’t about time they looked at the mirror and saw an emptiness looking back at them?
@ Mario: this is not a Nationalist blog. This is a place where people who vote Nationalist and many others who vote for other parties exchange views and express themselves.
This win is like when in Italian football a team wins the Coppa Italia, the real challenge is Lo Scudetto.
I am quite satisfied with the result; I would be surprised and elated if the PN gets the sixth seat.
Tomorrow Gonzi will still walk up the stairs to his office; he will be doing it for the next four years. Tomorrow is just another day.
eros your comment is good with the exception of: “Gonzi has unfortunately surrounded himself with bureaucrats and technocrats, who tackle particular tasks given to them and deliver….”
I think that you must be joking. Have these technocrats or bureaucrats as you call them delivered on the privatization of Malta Shipyards, the public transport reform or the MEPA reform? In these issues they have failed the Prime Minister and the nation miserably.
JUST IN CASE U HAVE CATARACTS AND YOU’RE STILL ON MATER DEI’S WAITING LIST: http://www.maltastar.com/userfiles/20090607labourcelebjoseph2.jpg
as i hope you can see.. there was one ..
[Daphne – Such finesse. That’s not a press conference. That’s a priedka tat-tifel.]
Enemalta staff should explain to the PM the difference between a turbina and what was actually ordered for Delimara.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090608/local/landslide-victory
Daphne, you’re lying when you say that “A crowd of thousands and a sea of MLP flags – and not a single European Union emblem to be seen. Not one.”
The pic in the Times’ website proves that you’re doing a disservice to this country.
[Daphne – The swallow that didn’t make a summer.]
Daphne, my point is that you are trying to make us … swallow … that there was no single EU flag. Untrue. Even if there was just one. One is not zero. Never was. Never will be.
[Daphne – Relax. Did those supporters bring them from home or buy them, as we did? Or were they distributed with instructions by party apparatchiks?]
Wherever they were bought from or brought from – you are trying to give an impression that simply is not true. Sorry, that’s simply not the way to do it.
[Daphne – The people who had them at home or spent money on them owned a symbol. The others were just waving something around that was given to them by the party bosses.]