Bernard Grech being pushed to be sole candidate to challenge Delia for party leadership
Lawyer Bernard Grech is being pushed to be the sole candidate to challenge Adrian Delia in the upcoming PN leadership election, sources within the PN told The Malta Independent yesterday.
Internal party sources said that the anti-Delia group had met on Monday with four of the potential candidates – PN MEP Roberta Metsola, PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia, PN Executive Committee member
Mark Anthony Sammut and lawyer Bernard Grech, where it was decided that the four potential candidates would meet and decide between them who will be the unifying contender to challenge Delia.
The sources said that the meetings between the four took place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday where they discussed the way forward. Sources later said that Bernard Grech will be the contender.
Grech has a lot of support among the PN councillors and the tesserati (paid up members), and people see him as a candidate who can unify the party, the sources said, while adding that the four potential candidates coming together and sitting down to discuss shows how much they care about the party.
Both Roberta Metsola and Therese Comodini Cachia released statements which read that they will not be contesting the election.
Metsola said that with the way things have progressed “my candidature will force a long-drawn out process that will damage not heal.” She also spoke about there being consensus that there needs to be one candidate going forward.
She said that the PN needs to be able to speak to a new generation. “It needs to reach out to an electorate that feels forgotten and politically homeless. It needs to offer solutions. It needs to heal. It needs to be honest about its failures.”
“We need to offer people options of prosperity and we need to protect our environment. Those are the themes we need to fight for. However if it is dressed up in the same old way, using the same old model, repeating the same old sound bites, we will only see the same old results. My position was always clear: we need radical change or we will become irrelevant.”
She said that with a leadership election looming, “I have made it clear that I will do my duty and was ready to throw my hat in the ring should that help heal the party, push forward a platform for change, present our vision for Malta and ultimately be the government-in-waiting Malta deserves.”
She said that she will keep fighting for those values, “for the politics of the centre that I have always stood for. For that vision of change. But some ceilings need a few more cracks before they can be smashed.”
“These have been days of soul searching, tough discussions and difficult negotiations. There is consensus that there needs to be one candidate going forward - our party will simply not survive another drawn out destructive leadership contest.”
She said that with the way things have progressed her candidature will force a long-drawn out process that will damage not heal.
“Leadership is also about doing the right thing even when it is hard and I’ve taken the hard decision to not be a candidate at this time.”
“I will support the agenda of change within the PN and continue standing up for the Malta and Gozo we all want to see,” Metsola said
PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia also released a statement. She said that the process they started to achieve change within the PN is still ongoing, and said she was at the forefront of this process as she believes that Malta deserves a serious, credible and united PN.
She outlined that she has held meetings with PN members, the electorate and the other potential candidates, “and I found in these people a talented team that shows that the PN still has a lot to offer to Malta.”
Comodini Cachia spoke of the need for the PN to have a new leader who can start the road to heal the divisions within the party. “Hard decisions like mine bring with them strong reactions that do not always unite the party immediately. That is why while I am convinced that the PN needs everyone’s talents so that this opportunity be one that truly serves the interest of the country and party, I am not going to contest the party leadership.”
She noted that she will remain committed to the party to ensure that the PN will be one united and credible team. “I am taking this decision as every action I have taken I did so in the interest of the country and the party.”
Candidates have until Monday to come forward, and following this a due diligence process will be held prior to the election. Adrian Delia had, as soon as the General Council voted for a leadership election to be held, said that he will be contesting the election.