The first debate
The first PN leadership debate between the four contenders for the post sums up the miserable state of affairs the Nationalist Opposition finds itself in. Labour must be celebrating again after witnessing the public onslaught among Nationalists, now not just on social media ‘closed’ groups but among its prime actors – the four leadership contenders.
Aesthetics first. If proof was needed, the televised debate showed how poor the PN has rendered its image. It runs a TV station but lacks basic knowledge on lighting, audio and camera work. The harshly lit studio exposed the worst of the candidates, who looked tired and shabby with hardly any TV make-up on. NET TV was once considered to be the benchmark for the broadcasting standard but that soon evaporated as a result of a lack of funding. However, one would have expected that for such an important event, the party would come up with a proper TV consultant to guide it on how to set the studio in a manner that would have given clout and credibility to the event. Instead, the four hopefuls were placed like busts in a museum. Audio was a disaster, with fabric brushing
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against the little microphones pinned to the candidates. The moderator did his utmost to sound as professional as could be but the camerawork betrayed his good efforts.
Yet, as bad as the imagery was, it was the content on offer that was the hardest to stomach. The four contenders had nothing new to showcase and nothing fresh to digest.
Adrian Delia, supposedly the outsider with a new way on offer seemed to be stuck defending himself from the allegations raised non-stop by Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Chris Said, who supposedly is the experienced one out of the lot, sounded like a broken record from Lawrence Gonzi’s days. He kept promising to revamp the party with the big question hanging on his head: why didn’t you do it in your thirty-odd years’ experience?
Alex Perici Calscione was by far the biggest disappointment throughout the debate. That the man doesn’t inspire was already known, but the one time he was placed under pressure during the debate he buckled. He couldn’t come up with a credible reply on how he plans to manage his conflict of interest with regard to his wife’s share of the Corinthia empire.
Ironically, it was Frank Portelli who stole the limelight. He spoke with a sense of wisdom and touched on most of the sore points the party and its people are experiencing. Had the man been ten years younger, he would pose a serious challenge to the other contenders.
When compounding it all, the exercise was a mess that the PN should have avoided. To be fair, the ordeal wasn’t only the debate but the whole ten-week campaign.
What is striking is that after a second massive defeat, and after its leaders decided to hold on to the reins and select a long process to elect a new leader, they simply left the party go astray. One would have expected Simon Busuttil to stamp his feet and ask his MPs to refrain from taking extreme positions in favour or against the four contenders. Secondly, he should have asked all party activists to stop firing at each other as though there will be no party after 16 September.
The lack of leadership shown in this occasion goes to show how big the problems at Dar Ċentrali are and what a massive job the new leader will be facing.