AD’s primary motivation is hatred of the Nationalist Party

Alternattiva Demokratika likes to grind on about how the two main political parties are just the same, how they are equally corrupt and how it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Really? They don’t fool me. It’s quite obvious that they don’t think of the two political parties as being indistinguishable, because they hate the Nationalist Party so badly that their hatred tips them into favouring Labour.

And sometimes, their hatred of the Nationalists tips them into the realms of blind and risible absurdity, like when one prominent AD-sympathising columnist wrote a big article a few days after the 2013 general election saying with absolute confidence that Lawrence Gonzi had stolen the antique furniture and paintings from the Auberge de Castille when he left, that a truck had been loaded up with all the goods and driven off to – where? His house, I imagine. That was a shocker. How embarrassing for him – the journalist, I mean.

Today, Alternattiva Demokratika decided to hold a press conference outside Parliament House, which they will never see the inside of precisely because of their spitefully twisted decisions. To do that, they will have to join the Labour Party. Was the press conference to register their shock and horror at government corruption at the highest level, in the Office of the Prime Minister?

Ma tarax. It was to take the Opposition leader to task for “treating people like children”. Because you know how it is, a government minister and the PM’s chief of staff can set up companies in Panama, the Prime Minister can defend them to the hilt, and that’s just fine. But if the Opposition leader tells people to send Joseph Muscat a clear message that they will not tolerate his corruption and the corruption of those around him, then we can’t have that, can we. That calls for a rare and dramatic press call by the biggest cheeses of AD, all lined up.

If there’s any party which treats people like children (other than Labour) it’s AD. They don’t call a press conference outside Parliament House to express their shock (do they feel any?) at the discovery that the Energy Minister and the PM’s chief of staff set up identical asset-concealing vehicles, at the same time, using the same consultant, during their dealings with Baku.

But then they call a press conference to express their horror and dismay that the Nationalist Party leader is “treating people like children”.

The problem with AD is that it is not a political party. It is an anti-Nationalist-Party bandwagon of people who hate the Nationalists so badly that they can’t see straight. Their hatred unbalances their judgement. So while a normal person would see exactly what the problem is here – a prime minister and his two henchmen populating secret companies in blacklisted jurisdictions with their assets, or an Opposition leader asking people to demonstrate against that corruption? – those poor unfortunates can’t.

Their real aim, of course, is to undermine tomorrow’s demonstration. Now please explain why any decent person would want to do that? Why would a decent person want to derail and undermine a demonstration against government corruption? Why would AD, which is supposed to be straitlaced and holier than thou, which is meant to be against political corruption, want to put people off going to demonstrate against corruption, rather than actually joining in themselves and walking up front with banners?

It’s because the demonstration was called by the leader of the Nationalist Party, and they hate the Nationalists. The people in AD hate the Nationalists more than they hate government corruption. They couldn’t have made that more clear over the last few days, carping and whining all over Facebook about how the two parties are the same and how it’s pot calling the kettle black and how they hope that people won’t turn up (except that they don’t say this outright, because even in their malice they can see how it sounds).