Alex Borg pledges to reopen Rabat PN club
Clubs can be useful spaces for both party and community, Opposition leader says
Opposition leader Alex Borg has pledged to reopen the long-shuttered Nationalist Party's club in Rabat.
In a video posted to social media, Borg said that after being closed for several years, it was about time the club on Triq Il-Kbira was reopened so its potential could be maximised.
"We're determined to open such places so they can bear fruit, not just for the party but also for the communities where they are located," he said while walking through the club.
In 2015, the party was weighing whether to keep, sell or lease some of its clubs as it grappled with its finances. Two years later, it emerged that the PN had pledged to sell 10 clubs over 10 years as part of a plan to manage debt repayments.
The issue resurfaced in 2022, when financial experts were brought in to help address what was described as a €2 million annual cash-flow issue for the party. Further commercialisation of PN clubs in Malta and Gozo was among the options being considered at the time.
More recently, former PN leader Bernard Grech said a number of party clubs that had been placed in a trust fund as collateral had been retained after the related debt was settled. The party’s CEO later referred to the same Patria Trust structure when discussing the need for structural reforms to manage the PN’s debts.
In June, Borg urged PN activists to join his efforts to make the party more modern, effective and competitive.