A long to-do list and no time to lose

By the time it elects two new deputy leaders and the rest of its leadership structure, the Nationalist Party will have lost a good six months out of a five-year legislature. New PN leader Adrian Delia has said that the process should be concluded by the end of the year, which means that he would only have four and a half years to prepare the party for the next general elections. There would be even less time to prepare for the European Parliament and local council elections, to be held in 2019.

This is no easy task when the party is starting off with a gap of 35,000 votes. The PN cannot afford to lose any more time if it wants to have a fighting chance.

But while the party can find ways of making up for lost time, winning the next election might prove impossible if the PN does not first look inwards and fix the multitude of problems plaguing it.

First and foremost, it must ensure that the upcoming deputy leadership elections do not open new wounds. Delia has been criticised for always being flanked by MPs David Agius and Clyde Puli, both of whom are interested in running for deputy leadership posts. They even accompanied him to his first meeting with Joseph Muscat this week, when Delia should have been accompanied

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by the incumbent deputy leaders, Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami. Yet Delia himself confirmed that the latter were not invited for the meeting.

While Delia insists that he is not favouring Puli and Agius over others, he must realise that that is exactly how the situation looks from the outside, and that he cannot afford to antagonise people within his own party and give rise to the impression that the die has already been cast.

Delia must also address a number of other issues, including the Jean Pierre Debono proxy documents debacle. The PN must take the bull by its horns and show that serious allegations will be dealt with in a serious manner.

Other recent issues, such as the resignation of the party’s electoral commission, must also be looked into.

Perception is a key part of politics so the Nationalist leader must tackle the highly visible issues that seem to support the idea that the party is broken. These include the on-stage attitude at the Independence mass meeting of people like Roberta Metsola and David Casa, who looked very unamused and unimpressed with what their new leader was saying. Both Metsola and Casa had publicly supported Chris Said for the leadership.

We are not saying that disagreements should be covered up, or that certain people should be kept away from the cameras, but problems that are so evident have to be dealt with head on.

Delia also seems to have trouble within the party’s parliamentary group, with reports suggesting that more than half of the Nationalist MPs do not support their new leader. Delia must act fast to win their trust. The PN cannot head to the polls with anything short of full support for its new leader.

The weak attendance at the Independence activities is also something that has to be addressed. The party should focus on bringing people back – in their thousands – instead of wasting time telling us how 400 people became new tesserati.

Finally, there was the resignation of election candidate Kevin Cassar, who in his resignation letter raised some very serious questions about the party leader. These concerns are doubtlessly shared by many other Nationalists, and several have stated that they will boycott their once-beloved party.

Delia has to up his game and assure them that he is the leader they deserve. He cannot find comfort in the fact that the tesserati chose him, for the party depends on the votes of so many others in a general election.

Delia has a very long to-do list, and he has to get cracking. There is just no time to lose.