Talking about party financing with any of the political leaders is like trying to catch a squealing hysteric pig running around in the mud. It’s not easy.
Unlike other issues, where the two main parties are at each other’s throats over who first came out with the idea, document or regeneration plan in question, when it comes to transparent answers on political party financing they simply expect the other side to take the first step.
The Prime Minister transmitted this feeling of hopelessness last Sunday when answering my questions on donations by big business and contractors to political parties.
“I am here as leader of the Nationalist Party and declare that we will be ready to discuss ways and means of publishing more information on how our party is financed, as long as the other parties agree to do likewise,” Gonzi said.
In a nutshell, he won’t be taking the first step. And unlike what he expects on other issues, he will wait for his political adversaries to take centre stage. That is a perfect recipe for inaction.
For it was the Nationalist Party in the early 1990s that set up the Galdes Commission to discuss regulations on political party financing, only to be scuppered after insistence from the PN’s representative that only donations above Lm20,000 should be made illegal.
The PN’s intransigence at the time on its rather high threshold for donations led to the abandonment of the debate, and today we are still left with a veritable void which means there are no limits for donations the parties can receive.
Gonzi’s willingness to restart those aborted discussions is positive but it betrays any sense of “new way of doing politics”, since he will not budge unless his adversaries do so at the same time.
Meanwhile, the major political parties continue sacrificing internal transparency on the altar of political convenience, in full knowledge that neither of them will bite the bullet too hard lest it will ricochet and inflict self-damage.
“Friendly fire” best describes the jibes and criticism both parties have been levelling at each other over the likes of Zaren Vassallo and Karmenu Penza: two contractors with clearly defined political allegiances. And just as every military machine tries to minimise death by friendly fire, it won’t be long till the trumpets of truce are sounded and everything returns to normal.
An open war between the parties on who finances whom will raise queries and bring an inquisitive media knocking at their doors. And that is something neither Gonzi nor Sant would want on the eve of an election characterised by a suspicious electorate that is increasingly losing its trust in the political class.
The wait for a law that regulates party financing will have to continue for now. It is not in the parties’ interest and hence will not be top of their agenda.

Kurt Sansone interviewed Lawrence Gonzi last Sunday at the PN club in Rabat.