The leader of Malta’s green party believes her leadership was “too timid” in the lead-up to the elections.

Reflecting on the recent MEP and local council election results, ADPD leader Sandra Gauci told Times of Malta she believed her leadership should have left more of an “imprint” on the campaign.

Gauci also said ADPD could have “packaged” its stance on migration differently and conceded there was a “problem with foreigners and overpopulation”.

And while stressing that the party’s two seats in the local council elections was “significant”, she reiterated her intention to rebrand ADPD, saying the party needed to “rethink everything”.

ADPD fared slightly better in the local council elections than it did in the MEP contest, winning seats in St Paul’s Bay and Attard. 

While she was unhappy the party didn’t gain more representation, it was a good start, she said.

“I inherited a party with zero seats, so going from zero to two is significant,” she said.

On the failure to win more votes, Gauci said she took “full responsibility” but was “still learning” after only one year as leader.

There is a problem with foreigners and overpopulation, which maybe ADPD didn’t tackle that properly... we need to package that better

“My mistake as leader was not giving the campaign my imprint as much as was needed... I admit my leadership was too timid.”

But with controversial far-right firebrand Norman Lowell receiving double the first count votes of ADPD in the MEP elections, is she concerned the party’s policies don’t match the priorities of voters?

“I’m not happy about it, but let’s stop giving him importance. He got more votes than us, but it doesn’t mean we [ADPD] shouldn’t be there,” she said.

However, Gauci said she believed Malta had “lost control” of immigration, describing the country as having a “sense of claustrophobia”.

“There is a problem with foreigners and overpopulation, which maybe ADPD didn’t tackle that properly... we need to package that better,” she said. 

“The country has lost control of immigration, with lots of foreigners coming and going,” said Gauci, adding the government was sending mixed messages to foreign workers.

“They bring in Y-plate drivers then restrict them, bring in construction workers then introduce licensing, bring in tourism workers then introduce the skills card... There’s no plan.”

In the lead-up to the elections, Gauci told an audience at an MEP candidates debate that while “we can’t ridicule or demean” migrants who came to Malta to work, the haphazard manner in which people were brought to Malta was “a mistake” and “increasing the population by 120,000 in five years is a shock”.