The aftermath

Over the past 15 days, much has been said about the result of the European Parliament elections. There’s no doubt, the result was not good for the Nationalist Party, at least in terms of votes cast in its favour. True, securing the third seat was indeed s

As the PN leader rightly stated, it is very easy to just give up and throw in the towel. Doing that in the face of a challenge is cowardice. And a coward Simon Busuttil is not. I am very sure that this bitter experience has filled him and us with greater determination to double our efforts to put our house in order, strengthen our structures, revamp our policies and re-build a robust bridge with the electorate. It will not be easy. It is evident that there are many who lost faith in us. Others have been won over by Labour for one reason or another. It is now our mission to convince these individuals that we really mean business.

Time is not in our favour. This government is still in its honeymoon period despite having been there for some 14 months. The result has shown that the electorate is till closing one eye to the negative side of this government. It has not lost its patience, as it had done in our regard after so many years of PN administrations. Labour knows this too well. This is why it has taken a bulldozer attitude which is very dangerous to our country. The way it dealt with the IIP issue is the perfect example.

Labour’s strategy of making people fear them whilst dangling a carrot to win them over to their side has apparently succeeded so far but will it last forever? I doubt it. I am a firm believer that you cannot please people all the time because it’s simply not sustainable.

I think that the PN now needs to close that chapter and open a new one with earnest. The past year was not a waste of time. The new administration has made great efforts to strengthen the party’s finances, consolidate the organisational structures and starting a review of its policies. What it needs now is a focused strategy which operates on different levels: the political, the commercial, and the organisational. All initiatives, wherever they come from, are to tie in with the overall strategy whose primary aim is to make the party a winning party by 2018. Anything that does not fit within that strategy should not be a priority.

Along the way we are bound to encounter great challenges. There will be people, even on our side, who will raise doubts on various issues. This is already happening. A number of articles were published recently in which former exponents of the party were critical of the party. This should not come as a surprise to us given that the PN is less hegemonic than the Labour Party. My appeal to these individuals is to keep contributing to our party to regain its strength, its posture and its self-confidence. We are ready to listen to what they have to say. Our ears are all open. Our door will not be shut to anyone.

My second appeal is to our opponents. Do not think, not even for a minute, that simple because we are down we are also out. If you think you can now corner us into some kind of submission or else bulldoze us, you’re wrong. We will remain determined to achieve what we had set out to achieve. The latest electoral defeat has once again given us an opportunity to revaluate our position and to tweak as necessary. One thing Labour has not managed to do in the past 14 months is to break a very compact parliamentary group as it did in the last legislature. Then it succeeded, because there were some who for their own reasons decided to go over to the other side. This time round, the situation is different. And Labour knows that. We can only achieve if we stay together. This togetherness can also be extended to the other party structures, especially the administrative, the executive.

Ultimately, we will only be successful if we manage to win over people. To do this, all of us will need to be on board. This is why I fully agree with the PN leadership’s proposal to start looking for candidates both for the local councils elections as well as for the next General Election, Our party led by an energetic and truly genuine person, Simon Busuttil, deserves full support. The earlier everyone realises this, the better our chances of garnering enough support to overcome the next hurdle.