Soon after he was elected leader of the Nationalist Party in late 2020, Bernard Grech said he wanted a party that believes it can win on its own steam. It must “urgently” stand on its own feet “to offer the people a real alternative”, he said.
More than four years later and two years away from when the next election can be held at the latest, can it be said that Grech has delivered?
After having achieved Malta’s independence in 1964, the PN and its leader, George Borg Olivier, lost their lustre and the 1971 election. It only returned to power 16 long years later but not before its new charismatic leader, Eddie Fenech Adami, toiled to bring the party back together again and build an unstoppable movement yearning for real change and full respect for law and order.
After having successfully secured European Union membership, and the introduction of the euro, the PN lost the 2013 election. For many, even Nationalist supporters, it was time for a change.
The tide is now turning again... or so it seems. Labour saw the unprecedented very strong majority it enjoyed since 2013 being eaten away at last June’s local and European elections, giving rise to a feeling it risks losing the next general election. Still, the question remains: Does the PN have what it takes to win the next election?
The possibility of winning by default may not be that remote because a growing section of the electorate – among them switchers and disgruntled genuine Labour supporters – is arguing that the PN in government cannot be any worse than the party in power.
Would the PN prefer to win the coming election because it is the party offering the better fare to the electorate or because the other runner stumbles and falls? Regretfully, in the present winner-takes-all political landscape, what matters to the parties is electoral victory, come what may. A maturing electorate argues otherwise.
What the electorate – not the blinkered voters, of course – are expecting from those promising to guarantee a sound future for the country are robust policies to address issues in the short, medium and long term.
Planning only for a five-year cycle – if that long, too – benefits mainly the political parties, not the people they say they want to serve.
So, rather than simply emulating its political adversary bent on ‘buying’ votes at any cost, decent voters expect the PN to prove, through sound policies, that it has spent its years in opposition striving to become relevant again and deserving of public trust. That, of course, entails addressing both structural and contextual issues.
Hopefully, when speaking about making ‘inroads’, the party leadership is not just taking into consideration the narrowing gap, vote-wise.
Because, ultimately, thousands decided to abstain from voting or opted for independent and smaller parties rather than choose Nationalist in the last two elections. That would indicate that a good chunk of the electorate is still disillusioned with the PN.
If that is because of leadership concerns, internal fragmentation and an outdated, conservative outlook, then the party in opposition has no time to lose to put its house in order, present itself as a credible alternative and come in line with the electorate’s changing priorities.
A government that skilfully uses its power of incumbency in a country where the economy is still thriving has a good chance of winning the next election. But after 12 years in power, and a litany of scandals, the electorate will naturally start looking at alterntives.