The Nationalist Party will be attempting to present a fresh line-up of candidates for the upcoming election, as a general election looms, with polls showing it is still heavily trailing Labour.

Sources said a process has started to try to replace some of the party veterans who have contested successive elections with younger candidates as well as new faces to try to reduce the deficit of circa 25,000 votes between the PL and PN.

Party insiders were contacted after party leader Bernard Grech said it was now time for “major decisions”. In less than six months at the helm of the party, polls show that Grech managed to recover some 21,000 votes but a heavy defeat still appears inevitable.

“This approach is not intended to sideline people but it is a reality check for all those involved that the messages being sent by the electorate cannot be ignored,” said a senior source in the PN.

The subject of party regeneration came to a head last November when PN MP Claudio Grech urged the party to improve its electability by giving prominence to new candidates and younger politicians who were willing to make a commitment to the party.

The sources explained that Grech’s appeal now had the backing of the party leader, besides a number of other MPs and key people in the party.

Younger candidates for the election have been conspicuously present during PN political debates and in the media.

It is still not clear if serving veteran MPs will be urged not to contest the coming election, or rather dissuaded, though one source said the party leadership had no intention of booting anyone out.

“But something definitely needs to change,” the sources said.

One in four PN MPs served in four legislatures

Around one in four MPs on the Nationalist Party benches has been serving for four or more legislatures. The longest-serving were MPs Mario Galea and Edwin Vassallo, who are currently serving their sixth legislature.

Galea has been in parliament since the 1992 election, except for the short 18-month stint of the Labour government between 1996 and 1998.

Vassallo, 59, an ultra-conservative MP who has been elected in every election since 1996 told Times of Malta when contacted yesterday that he still had a lot to offer to the party and the country.

“I do not feel I am a liability to the party. I’m not to blame if I’ve been long in parliament because I do not make myself an MP. People chose me and I’m proud to be serving them. I am all for new blood within the party and this is something that every party should do from time to time, especially when an election is approaching. I have always been willing to help new candidates, but I feel I still have a lot to offer to the party and country,” he said.

PN MP Jason Azzopardi, 50, who is serving his fifth legislature, said the party was duty-bound to present the electorate with a healthy mix of new and experienced politicians but it was always up to the people to choose.

“I am encouraged by the healthy influx of fresh blood since Bernard Grech took over. I am already helping new candidates, including on my same district, but this does not mean that my time in politics is over. On the contrary, I am contributing and still have a lot to contribute. Our duty is to present people with a mix and then it’s up to them to choose. That’s the beauty of democracy,” he said.

He recalled that when Labour was elected in 2013, it had MPs who had served since the 1970s and who were given cabinet roles. 

Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici is also in his fifth legislature. David Agius, Robert Arrigo, Mario de Marco and Clyde Puli are serving their fourth, while Beppe Fenech Adami, Karl Gouder, Chris Said and Stephen Spiteri are in their third.

Efforts to contact other MPs proved futile.  

The party is also changing its policy-shaping process. From a method that left most of the policymaking to a handful of individuals, it is now shifting to one in which the party’s policy clusters – which started operating in mid-2020 – are being given the principal role to source ideas, shape them and blend them into party policy.

The policy framework of over 130 policy priorities was unanimously approved by the PN executive in a recent meeting. During the meeting, Claudio Grech explained how the framework is underpinned by an inspiring socio-economic vision that prioritises the improvement in quality of life and the safeguard of the natural environment.