The Nationalist Party is not dead but stuck in the past, unappealing to the younger generation and in dire need of a major overhaul, according to its former communications director.

Alessandro Farrugia writes in Thursday's Talking Point that the party leadership is not the PN’s only problem but there are other issues emanating from its “patriarchal attitude”.

Farrugia led Bernard Grech’s campaign for leadership and then took over the party’s communications arm before resigning “for personal reasons” in December 2021.

He writes that the party is intent on remaining “clawed to the not-so-recent past” and this does not appeal to today’s society.

He identifies a serious deficiency in taking bold decisions and fear of disturbing the status quo as some of the party’s problems.

The party has “too many jacks-of-all-trades” and “too many who preach from their soapbox seemingly touched by divine intervention”.

“The PN is still engaged in a conflict it itself created and which goes beyond the guise of a ‘mosaic of ideas’,” he writes.

According to Farrugia, the party needs a major overhaul, starting with a serious rebranding exercise and a media arm that works.

“There is a whole nation craving for an opposition that can provide better prospects... but the PN first needs to address several big white elephants in the room”.