Confirmed: PN leadership contest will be a two-horse race

The PN leadership election will be a two-horse race, with only Alex Borg and Adrian Delia having submitted their expressions of interest by the 2pm deadline on Sunday.

Franco Debono and Mark-Anthony Sammut, two potential candidates, announced their decision not to contest earlier in the day.

Delia, a former leader of the party, and Borg, a Gozitan MP first elected in 2022, come from the same ideological wing of the party and are viewed as conservative among MPs.

Their head-to-head has surprised many, since the two had previously met and reportedly agreed that they would not contest each other. 

Before their candidatures are formally accepted, both candidates need secondments from three MPs, five local councillors, ten members of the party’s executive committee, fifty members of the general council, and fifty paid-up members of the PN.

Both candidates are expected to easily gather the required signatures.

Borg and Delia will also be subject to due diligence that may take up to six weeks.

Until recently, the two were considered close allies, with Delia having mentored Borg.

Delia was a relative outsider when he was elected party leader in 2017, succeeding Simon Busuttil. His term was characterised by deep divisions which led to his ousting in 2020, before he could lead the PN to a general election. He was replaced by Bernard Grech and has since been viewed as a team player within the PN, earning the respect of many of his former opponents, particularly when he won the Vitals court case which quashed the government's controversial hospitals concession.

He had initially indicated he was not planning to return to the party's helm.

His campaigning since his surprise announcement has focused on experience and credentials, particularly the hospitals deal and his work as shadow minister of transport and then of health. 

"I built a lot of bridges. I made a lot of friends. We're all ready to work together... We have an opposition which can show we're an alternative government," Delia told reporters as he was asked last week if he could heal any past rifts.

Borg, who like Delia is a lawyer, is projecting his nomination as aiming for a 'generational change' within the Nationalist Party. He is just 29 years old. Writing in The Sunday Times today he said this was the time for the Nationalist Party to reclaim its role as the party that designs and builds Malta’s future. "As someone who proudly represents Gozo and its resilient people, I have seen first-hand what happens when communities are left behind. But I’ve also seen what happens when vision meets courage. That’s the spirit I want to bring to the PN; and, one day, to the country," he wrote.

No candidates from the PN's liberal and centrist elements

Over the last few days, several PN MPs and insiders expressed concern that no one from the PN’s more liberal and centrist elements had stepped up to run.

Campaigning is expected to last all through the summer with voting by PN members in September, in time for the PN's annual Independence Day celebrations and just weeks before the Budget speech, when the Leader of the Opposition would be expected to make his most important speech in the parliamentary year.

A leaked survey earlier this month, before the candidatures were announced, showed 27.5% of respondents opting for Borg, with Delia registering 19.3% and Franco Debono scoring 8.8%. The survey was held among party members soon after European Parliament president Roberta Metsola decided not to run for the party's leadership.

Bernard Grech has stayed on as party and Opposition leader until his successor is announced. He will stay on as an MP.  

His resignation came on the back of repeated polling which found him failing to gain traction in trust ratings, despite the PN winning a third seat in European Parliament elections a year ago.

The latest MaltaToday survey showed him trailing Robert Abela by 31 points.

While failing to take the PN forward in the last general election, Grech has pointed to having achieved party unity as his most important triumph over the past five years.

His resignation announcement caught many by surprise and led to a clamour for Metsola to return to Malta and take his place. She eventually dismissed those calls, saying should could not abandon her duties in Brussels.