Proposes far-reaching changes to the role of PN Deputy Leader

The damaging general election result has opened the door for wholesale and much-needed changes to the Nationalist Party. With the PN leadership race underway, Julian Bonnici met with ROBERT ARRIGO, who has announced his candidature for the role of Deputy

So what made you decide to go for the position?

I announced my candidature straightaway, as opposed to the normal practice of just waiting around to see if there is support for your candidature.

It is a combination of the effects of the last election, and my political CV, which includes four local council elections and four general elections in which I have consistently increased my share of votes. In the last election I managed to get five per cent of the PN votes in Malta and Gozo. On the basis of that, I decided to take this chance and go for the position of PN Deputy Leader for Party Affairs.

Why Party Affairs rather than Parliamentary Affairs?

I believe I would be more successful in restarting the party’s machinery.

Why did you not go for PN Leader?

Before taking my decision, some of the people I spoke to suggested that I should run for leader, because I have a good track record in business, politics and sport. However, I would rather pursue something that I am 150 per cent sure I can do – and be successful – rather than something where I would be 80 per cent certain of success.

What is your vision for the role?

I am looking to introduce a totally different concept to the role of Deputy Leader. The four leadership candidates have said that there is a need for change, but I do not want simple change, I want to turn the situation upside-down. I do not want to be the Deputy Leader because of ego or ambition. I want to create an Office of the Deputy Leader that involves the widest possible range and the widest number of people, to create a Chief of Staff for the office and a CEO.

I have a plan and a vision that I have discussed with those who will be part of it.

Could you give us more details?

I will unveil everything at a press conference or when I present my concept to the PN’s councillors. It is a far-reaching concept that needs to be explained; it’s a new concept, with new ideas, and is quite innovative for Malta.

We have been harping on about change, and this will achieve that. The leadership candidates say that we need change, but I am going to show exactly where and how to achieve it.

The PN has lost the last two elections by landslide

and record victories. Why did this happen?

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The second loss was a consequence of the first and the first was a consequence of the previous five years of PN government, where instead of the people leaving the party, the party left its people.

In both these defeats, I went against the trend by increasing my vote count. I was doing things differently to the party, and people appreciated this. I do not want to sound big-headed, but I am not a one-electionwonder. This has been a growing trend since 1994, when I was first elected mayor of Sliema. It is a CV that is in sync with voters, I was elected from two districts in the last election and I believe that my recipe will work on a larger scale.

Do you support any of the four leadership candidates?

Normally a Deputy Leader would wait until a Leader is elected. I am doing this now because I do not have an affiliation with anyone in particular: I am affiliated with the party. I am not a part of any group or klikka (clique), because the worst thing about a klikka is the people you leave out. I am willing to work with any of the four contestants.

But which one would you most like to see take the position?

I wouldn’t mind any of them – they each have their pros and cons. You are never going to get Mr Perfect and, ultimately you have to make a choice between the four. The most important thing is to show that your concept is independent of any particular candidate: it is for the party, for the people.

You mentioned the klikka. There is a public perception that you were often excluded from the inner circle of the party’s leadership, even in 2013, when you did not form part of the Shadow Cabinet. Is this what spurred your interest in the position of deputy leader?

No, but to be out of a klikka has many consequences. The klikka, in itself, is bad and should not be acceptable in any political party. My independence will guarantee that everyone in the party will be respected. We need to start with this at home so that it will flow out to the public.

It appears that the Nationalist Party is at a crossroads, with conservatives, liberals, and moderates in the party wanting to take it forward on different trajectories. Can the party continue to survive?

I do not fit into any of the three ideologies. I would say I am a realistic person, a realist who inter- prets the times in which we live. Conservative, moderate, liberal are names that journalists attribute to people, which is not always correct. After forming part of the parliamentary group for so many years, I can say that sometimes you work with a person on one topic, then against that person on a different topic.

So what is the unifying value of the PN?

Let’s not talk about values, because they’re almost seen as a thing of the past. I believe we need to practice what we preach, and should try benefiting the entire nation. Being a realist, you need to adapt, and in so doing so you are able to move closer to the people. I have done so with my business in order to reflect different circumstances and situations. This is how it has to be, and I think the PN is slowly getting there. It could be said that the party has lost its values, but it has not, and does not want to. However, we need to move forward to present an alternative government that has the backing of the everyday voter. We need to be as fast as Labour.

In the election, PN Leader Simon Busuttil said that it was about principles and not policies. Do you think this was a mistake? Why did he give up on policies?

I do not believe he gave up on policies. In actual fact, we presented an electoral manifesto that held a lot of sections. However, we did not market those policies enough: some of the proposals were not even mentioned. Polls had indicated that 60 per cent of the country was worried about the scandals and the corruption, so reading that may have prompted Simon to go for that approach.

In reality it did not work because, even during my house visits, a number of people said to me: “Yes, we all know they’re corrupt, so what now? What is next?” People wanted to hear our proposals and I do not think we were able to put them across.

As an example, whenever I used to show nursery rhymes to my granddaughter on an iPad, the first thing that would pop up was the Labour slogan of ‘ L

Aqwa Zmien’. That is intensive and aggressive marketing, to the extent of brainwashing. Our constraints meant we did not have those marketing capabilities – so hats off to Labour for it and, obviously, we really do need to start afresh.

Simon also did some good: the party was restructured and, once again, became self-sufficient and began turning a profit. It started appealing to people, which was evident at the mass meetings, which attracted larger crowds

Given that the last two elections were lost by roughly 35,000 votes, what are the chances that the PN could win the next election?

When I was in the sphere of football, I used to aim for a championship every year. I got a lot of championships, not all the time, because I was reminded that the other teams also want to win.

You need to be prepared when the occasion arises and have a well-oiled machine. If you are elected, great – but if not, you should not just call it a day. As I used to say: if I lost a trophy final I would not just go and resign or sack all my players. We have to see what we did wrong and move forward. I guess our assumption that the PN would be elected, after four years in opposition following 25 years in government, was a bit presumptuous. Politics is a cycle and we need to build on what is there at the moment, which is much better than what Busuttil found four years ago. We stand

a better chance today, but circumstances will tell.

You were vocal after Busuttil announced that he would resign, arguing that he should not have done so. Do you still believe he made the wrong choice?

I think, right or wrong, that it was Simon’s decision. I do, however, feel he took that decision too hastily after the pain of the general election result. He was not my favourite at the beginning, but he improved over the years and in the last couple of months he really did become a party leader. Remember, there is no university course on being a party leader; it is only through experience that one learns how to fill that role.

We also have to appreciate that Simon was taken from a comfortable job, with a comfortable income and staff, and pushed into an arena that was riddled with potholes, was disorganised and without much by way of funds. He is leaving the party in a much better place than the one in which he found it.

He has even opened up the party to all paid up members, which is something President Emeritus George Abela wanted. If I am elected Deputy Leader, this cooperation will increase.

So you have plans to reconnect the party with the people?

It is all planned out – we know exactly where we need to go. The people helping out will be introduced in the next 15 days and will outline the first steps of something that I think is really exciting.

Mario de Marco was hit with controversy when it was revealed that he had links with the DB Group. You are a prominent individual in the tourism industry; do you believe this involvement could present a conflict of interest?

There is absolutely no conflict of interest. My interests, and the interests of the tourism industry in general, are the same. We pull the same rope. As a company, we make about 12 per cent of our turnover from the tourism industry, and we are the largest bed supplier for foreign companies in Malta. It has been this way for 44 years, and we have brought around three million tourists to Malta. So there is just one interest, and that is to make Malta successful.

It can be said that overdevelopment is a direct result of tourism, do you agree?

You cannot let the sector get away with abuse. What is the point of having a deadline of 15 June to cease all excavation and demolition, and then give out extensions to nine out of 10 sites? We need to be better-planned, even if means working double shifts in winter, in order to give both residents and tourists a break.

Could over-development have a substantial impact on the tourism industry?

No, there will come a time when Malta will go out of fashion, but it is part of the normal cycle. We did not experience it because of the situation in Turkey. However, in this period of success, our focus should be on upgrading the product. The hotels do it, and we are a good three-star destination. But we’re still talking about pavements, cleanliness, the roads, street furniture – things that should be automatic. It is like having a room without a shower. Other destinations will soon start coming up, and they will have aggressive prices so we need to improve the product if we are to compete properly.

Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi has revealed plans for Air Malta, hinting that he will be looking to expand the routes of the struggling airline in order to make it more profitable, and more desirable to investors. Do you agree with his approach? What would you do?

We also have to appreciate that Simon was taken from a comfortable job, with a comfortable income and staff, and pushed into an arena that was riddled with potholes, was disorganised and without much by way of funds.

His approach has confirmed that Labour has wasted the last four years on Air Malta, as they are going in a completely different direction than that of the previous administration. They realised that by cutting down on aircraft, and sometimes leasing unheard of aeroplanes, the situation was getting worse and the next step was closure. With so many employees to look after, and with their backs against the wall, they realised it was the only way forward.

I think that expanding the routes is the way forward. The PN and I always told them this, but those valid suggestions were always ignored under Edward Zammit Lewis, which at least is changing under Minister Mizzi. I do not care who fixes the situation because we’re all in favour of Air Malta, and we need to get it up and running again. The airline is still vital for Malta and it could become a resounding success, but there is a lot to be done.

In fact, it almost compares to the PN in that sense.

Being a realist, you need to adapt, and in so doing so you are able to move closer to the people

than it had seen in the last 15 years. One has to continue building on that and moving closer to the real world.