Bernard Grech is the right person for the PN in this moment. With no one else stepping forward to offer their service, his re-election as party leader with the backing of a relatively strong 81 per cent of councillors is step one in the difficult process of reform that the party must now embark on after its thrashing at the last election.
Grech has already made his principal goals clear: unity of purpose, greater discipline, reorganisation of structures, connecting with voters and a financial turnaround.
He pledged to make the tough decisions needed to take the party forward along these lines.
The financial challenge is huge – the PN has a mountain of debt.
The ‘capital’ of a political party should be its ideas, vision, competence, leadership and principles.
Instead, with our system of party funding stuck in the past, the PN is having to compete with a Labour Party that had an enormous advantage in the election – the likelihood that it would be able to repay financial donations with political favours.
So, Grech’s first job as party leader is to take the tough decisions needed to bring in some much-needed revenue, even if it includes selling off some of the PN’s clubs.
There’s another commercial theme here. The party needs to answer the question he has posed: what is the PN ‘brand’? To do so it must tap all the thought leaders it can muster, from both within and outside the party, and not rush these deliberations.
The Nationalist Party needs to rethink its strategy to stop the perception that it only embraces conservative values and individuals.
To make itself more relevant, the party needs to accommodate and promote the more liberal voices in its midst knowing the way Maltese society has dramatically changed in a decade.
It is also high time to rethink a party name many would associate with far-right movements.
But the PN should never abandon the principled positions it has taken in times of national backsliding on governance and the rule of law, whether or not the electorate sees this as worthy of reward at the polls. That ‘brand’ has opened up Malta’s economy, helped integrate us within the European Union and join the euro. This is all part of the PN’s identity, which it must never abandon just because it has not produced winning results in recent elections.
In refreshing the brand, the party needs to come up with a clear economic and social vision for the country.
One may argue that education is key here. In a modern global economy, a country prospers to the degree that its population is intelligent and educated.
Education not only reduces the disparity between the haves and have-nots but helps individuals fulfil non-material aspirations: greater health, more leisure time, better quality of life, expansion of horizons, new experiences.
The country’s immediate concern is to tackle the current daunting global economic pressures. The country also needs to actively do something to save the little untouched environment rather than just give lip service.
Through all this, the PN must act as a tough opposition, an unyielding watchdog of the administration.
Ultimately, Grech now has a certificate to stamp his authority on the party and weed out individuals who have for far too long acted solely in their selfish interests and not in the interest of party and country.
The next major electoral test is the MEP elections in 2024. The PN should set the bar high and not be tempted to accept standards which have shamed the country internationally.
The real test of Grech’s leadership starts now.