PN campaign catered for the masses, forgot the individual – Comodini Cachia

The Nationalist Party election campaign focused too much on corruption, and failed to see the bigger picture, choosing to speak to the masses rather than address individual issues, newly-elected MP Therese Comodini Cachia said.

Interviewed on INDEPTH by The Malta Independent online editor Stephen Calleja, Comodini Cachia said that while it was important to deal with the scandals that hit the Labour government, the PN’s strategy did not see to the bread and butter situations that also affect the way people vote.

“People do not just vote on corruption issues,” she said. The PN had a good electoral programme which it did not sell properly.

She said that while the party was realising that people who voted Labour in 2013 were coming back, it did not grasp the fact that there was “another wave of people” who were going in the opposite direction.

She said that the appointment of shadow ministers who were MEPs and did not have a voice in the Maltese Parliament was a wrong decision.

Comodini Cachia had been appointed by PN leader Simon Busuttil as shadow minister for education, which meant she had to juggle her work in the European Parliament while shadowing a substantial portfolio.

Comodini Cachia said that it was not correct to have someone who spends half of every week in Brussels to serve as shadow minister.

Work was done, but shadow ministers should be able to give their final punch in the House of Representatives, something which she could not do because she did not have a seat.