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Last time round the number of Brits who voted for their European candidates stood at 24 per cent, which gives us an impression of what value the Anglo-Saxons give to Brussels. Across Europe, electoral turnouts will very much depend on what their government is doing.
If there is a need to protest, then rest assured that voters will either stay home or cross over to the opposition parties. The Maltese political landscape can work in this way too, but with the national media complacent about government incompetence and its failures, there is very little chance that the electorate will wake up to protest. I recall years back, when voters tried their luck once again for a third party, Austin Gatt, then Secretary General of the Nationalist Party, shirked off the phenomena. “It is only a protest vote,” he said.
In Europe, it is the protest vote that political parties look out for. In Malta the one way of neutralising the protest vote was by postponing electoral reform and organising a character assassination of a political party. If there is any historian around who intends to write the history of the last thirty years, apart from describing the ugliness of the Mintoff years and the mediocrity of his chosen successor, I would expect to read something about the manipulative Nationalist Party.
And now, to the candidates, the million dollar question is who will be making a name for themselves (and for Malta). And yes, in a parliament of around 700, having five lonely voices representing Malta is like asking a shrivelled Maltese gbejna to stand out in a rack of fine French cheeses. But then we should not forget that we are only 400,000 Maltese against 500 million Europeans and as representation goes, we are dearly over-represented in terms of population size.
The question to be asked now is who will be representing Maltese interests instead of those of his or her government or party. Will it be Simon Busuttil, Joseph Muscat or Arnold Cassola? Will they drag party politics to Brussels or will they be free from their political masters? Who will be singled out as an outstanding orator with an innate ability to capture the attention of journalists? Will it be Michael Falzon, Joanna Drake or Wenzu Mintoff? Who will be making a mark on the unsavoury taboo subjects ignored in Malta and by the Maltese? Will it be David Casa or will it be Joe Debono Grech? And on a foreign policy for Europe, what will youngish Miss Tedesco-Triccas and Owen Bonnici have to say?
Not to worry, I am sure Joe Saliba and Jason Micallef have all the answers. As we will discover, the European Parliament is not a place for technocrats or for soft-spoken, over-dressed dandy politicos, but a grand foyer for political lobbyists.
Many of the elected representatives are independent thinkers who traditionally are not frontline politicians, and they all share a vision for a greater Europe, where citizens from the Canary Islands to Warsaw enjoy the same rights and high expectations. Well not quite so, but that is what we are supposed to believe. It will be interesting to see what happens. Until then we wait for 1 May.
But do break open your karus if you have any intention of staring at the display of colour and fireworks on the night before. Haven’t you heard? Valletta’s gardens are going private for the occasion!
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