Nationalist leader Bernard Grech does not exclude other electoral candidates withdrawing from the race in the coming days.

“I exclude nothing, in the sense that I don’t know what's in people’s hearts. I'm less focused on who is leaving and rather focused on who is coming back to the party,” he said.  

His comments come 24 hours after four candidates withdrew from the party's election campaign.  

Clyde Puli, Kristy Debono, Mario Galea, and Claudio Grech all announced they would not be contesting the March 26 election.  

Grech was speaking during a quick visit to the Times of Malta offices in Mrieħel on Tuesday morning during the campaign trail.

He said that the candidates that withdrew had all done so for different reasons, including because “they understood that I want to regenerate the party and create new space”.  

This, he said, did not mean that he did not want them to be involved in the PN. In fact, Claudio Grech would be helping fine-tune the party’s electoral manifesto and strategy. 

Asked whether he had encouraged candidates to drop out to make room for fresh faces, Grech said that when he approached new prospective candidates in recent months, one of the reasons given for not signing up was the fear that they would be eclipsed by long-established Nationalist MPs.  

“You get some who say now is not the moment and then it turns out that the reason is that they are not seeing any space for themselves. Well, the space is being created and is continuing to be made,” he said.  

Grech added that he was not worried, but more focused on attracting new talent.  

On those who made Mario Galea’s life 'hell'

Grech also weighed in on comments made by former candidate Mario Galea who on Tuesday lashed out at the party leadership, saying that some had made his life "hell”. 

Galea, who has long faced mental health issues, claimed he was stigmatised by two PN officials in particular, one of whom has since quit. He refused to identify them.

When questioned, Grech said he does not want anyone to go through “these kinds of difficulties”. 

If there were any around him who had acted wrongly, then he would have no problem getting rid of them.  

“If you damage the party, you are ultimately damaging the country,” he said.