An emulation story

It may be costing the PN more than one percentage point, but they are absolutely right in calling the PL a proxy-Nationalist party. The strategy adopted by the PL has the purpose to give us the message that there is no big difference between the two parties. This is evident from the new image the PL has adopted quite a while ago - blue ties, blue background, the occasional use of English words and the parading of ex-PN sympathisers who have joined them. It is even more evident in the policies they have adopted - pro-Europe, pro-businesses, pro-church schools and most evidently pro middle class. They have even promised to adopt the budget for 2013 proposed by the PN in its entirety, while a good chunk from the 800 proposals from their manifesto are actually a continuation of the policies put into practice by the Gonzi administration. Indeed, it sometimes gets tricky for anyone who is not an avid follower of Maltese politics to identify speakers on TV with their party.

The rationale behind this strategy is very obvious. The last election had the lowest turnout since Independence. The vast majority of those who opted not to vote had opted for PN in the previous election while the vast majority of the PL supporters casted their vote. And yet the PN still managed to clinch a victory. It was therefore clear that if the PL didn't make itself more attractive to ex-PN voters, it would never be in government. There were various ways how they could have achieved this, but the one chosen was to emulate the PN in almost its totality.

At face value, this strategy seems clever indeed as it has put the PN in an awkward position. How can the PN criticise the policies put forward by the PL, if they are the same ones they have been putting into practice for the past two decades?

This incredible strategy seems to have taken the PN so much by surprise that the only way how they reacted to it was to claim they have been copied. Had they been thinking more straight they would have used it in their favour. When the PL chose to emulate the PN, the PL is playing a very dangerous game.  In so doing they are actually admitting that they have been wrong all throughout, while the PN have been right.