Adrian Delia made it clear throughout the Nationalist Party leadership race that he felt he was battling headwinds in his quest to become party leader.

Now that the Birkirkara lawyer and political outsider has made it to the top of the PN and become part of the “establishment” he said was working against him, he can expect the difficulty quotient to rise, as the Labour Party gets in on the game. 

Here are six tests the PN’s new leader will face over the coming months.

1. Stopping the PN’s internal bleeding

One of Dr Delia’s first tasks as PN leader will be to rally the troops and unite an Opposition which has frayed at the seams over the course of the party leadership race.

The Birkirkara lawyer used his maiden speech as party leader to call for unity and pledged to lead the PN in battling "hatred" and "division", but it will take more than those words to win over sceptics.  

Dr Delia has faced vociferous opposition from party officials and MPs such as Jason Azzopardi, who has made no bones about his distaste for the party's new leader.

The Democratic Party’s Marlene Farrugia, who forged a pre-electoral alliance with the PN, has warned that Dr Delia will “bury” the PN if he becomes its leader.

Jason Azzopardi was the most vociferous critic of Dr Delia, but he is not the only PN MP to have reservations about the party's new leader.

Simon Busuttil, who will be keeping his parliamentary seat despite stepping aside as leader, had also previously said that he would have heeded the administrative council’s suggestion to bow out of the race had he been in Dr Delia’s shoes.

In a Times Talk interview, Dr Delia said that he would happily work with all those who “really want to contribute” to the PN while making it clear he expected anyone “working for their own interests to leave of their own volition.”

What that means for the PN’s parliamentary group, where mistrust of Dr Delia runs deep, or the party’s coalition with PD remains to be seen.

2. Getting a parliamentary seat

The new PN leader also faces a more pragmatic challenge: obtaining a parliamentary seat.

Dr Delia must sit in parliament if he is to assume the post of Opposition leader, and to do so he must bank on a sitting MP ceding their seat in his favour.

Delia has said he has a plan for getting into parliament.

In a press conference last week, the new PN leader told reporters that his co-option to parliament was “no longer an issue”, though he declined to name the MP who would be bowing out to make way for him.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat faced a similar challenge when he became Labour Party leader in 2008, with Joseph Cuschieri vacating his seat on that occasion. Three years later, Mr Cuschieri was sent to Brussels as Malta’s sixth MEP. He now serves as Malta’s Ambassador to Greece.

3. Delivering a strong budget reaction and making electoral inroads 

Should Dr Delia sail into parliament, his first major test as Opposition leader will come in three weeks’ time once Finance Minister Edward Scicluna delivers his Budget 2018 speech.

All eyes will be on him to deliver a strong reaction to the Budget and start shaping the PN’s economic vision under his leadership.

Next month's Budget speech will offer Dr Delia his first major test. Photo: DOI/Reuben Piscopo

The new PN leader will then focus his energies on his first electoral test as party leader, during the 2019 European Parliament and local council elections.

Anything short of an outstanding performance will do nothing to help an already discouraged party back onto its feet, and could sow grassroots doubts about his leadership.

But if Dr Delia can lead the party to ballot box glory, he will blow wind into the PN’s deflated sails and gain ammunition to discredit critics who say Dr Delia’s ascendancy spells the beginning of the end for the PN.

4. Fleshing out what is ‘new’ about his ‘new way’

Dr Delia’s rallying cry for ‘a new way’ of doing politics ignited interest in his candidacy and carried him to victory in both rounds of the electoral process.

But in a bitter campaign which saw the PN leader answer more questions about his personal finances and bank accounts than about his policy perspectives, it remains to be seen just what, apart from himself, will be new about his PN.

Dr Delia has said that he wants the party to place a greater emphasis on ending poverty, introduce long-term plans spanning decades for active ageing and economic development, push for reform of the police force and the law courts.

INTERVIEW: Adrian Delia says he will convert his sceptics

He has also made it clear he would overhaul the party’s media machine, called for the PN to give greater power to its sectional committees and intimated that he will oppose moves to legalise recreational marijuana. 

5. Reconciling Simon Busuttil’s PN with his own

Although Dr Delia will be keen to stamp the party with his own imprint, he will nevertheless have to build his vision atop foundations laid by his predecessor - something he alluded to in his first words as party leader. 

Simon Busuttil focused the party almost exclusively on corruption allegations which have dogged the government throughout the past legislature and said, in a congratulatory tweet to Dr Delia, that his success has a responsibility to ensure the PN “finishes what we started.”

That emphasis however backfired at the ballot box, and although Dr Delia has promised that “anything possible to strengthen the independence of institutions like the judiciary and other watchdogs will be done,” he will seek to refocus the party while working to ensure voters attracted to Dr Busuttil’s ‘good governance’ message do not feel disenfranchised.

Given the acrimony of the campaign and the nature of allegations made about Dr Delia, that will be no small order.

6. Not finding himself on the back foot

Having faced questions about anything from prostitutes in Soho to offshore accounts and seven-figure debts, Dr Delia has already been heavily exposed before he has even set foot in the arena of national politics.

The new PN leader told Times Talk that he would have a very easy five years if the Labour administration focused its attacks on him personally,  but he will be acutely aware that his political rivals will be working tirelessly to dig up any morsel from his past which could erode his credibility with voters.

Keeping the government on its toes and calling it out when needed will prove especially challenging if the PN finds itself constantly rebutting personal allegations about its leader.