Bernard Grech was inevitably going to obtain the result he did in Saturday’s leadership election because PN councillors had no other option but to vote for him, PN MP and former party leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday.

“What option did they have? If not him, who? What was the other option? To vote him out and have no leader?” he said, when contacted for comment as one of the former party leaders.

“The real decision was made when the leader announced he would stay on after the election. After that, the councillors had no other choice but to remain where they were.”

Adrian Delia

On Saturday, Grech was re-elected PN leader, securing 81 per cent of the vote, after a one-horse race in which 90 per cent of party councillors voted.

Delia said he was encouraged by the “healthy” turnout, considering many traditional parties were experiencing dwindling participation worldwide.

But he refused to say how he had voted, insisting he “voted in the best interest of the party”.

The result changes nothing and people must judge the party by what happens from now on, he added.

Following a controversial run as PN leader, Delia faced Grech in a leadership race in 2020. The election, in which Grech won with 69 per cent of the vote, splintered party supporters.

Simon Busuttil

“The real test remains whether he manages to transform this internal support into visible results on a national level, because the Nationalist Party has not been able to do that for the last 10 years,” Delia said, acknowledging that all leaders, including himself, should share the blame.

However, previous Nationalist Party leaders, Lawrence Gonzi and Simon Busuttil, disagree.

Lawrence Gonzi

Former prime minister Gonzi described the result as a significant victory for Grech, not only because it confirms that most councillors have faith in him but also because it indicates he has won the support of a chunk of voters who did not vote for him in 2020.

Gonzi commended Delia on his hard work as leader but Grech’s result slightly exceeded his expectations.

It was important, he said, for the party to affirm its leader with this strong, fresh mandate. This should now settle the internal currents and pave the way for it to focus on the more important political decisions that the opposition must take as the country is hit by the consequences of war, pandemic and rising cost of living.

Busuttil, who resigned as leader after the election defeat of 2017, said the result, both in terms of turnout and level of confidence, was clear – it had given Grech legitimacy and the mandate to rebuild the party into a strong opposition, one the country so desperately needs.

The real problem was not the PN’s internal issues, he said, but the fact that “democracy has been hijacked by Labour”, a party that “buys votes through favours, jobs, building permits, right down to a €100 cheque a few days before the general election”, and a media landscape that is “mostly government-controlled” and “rife with pro-Labour propaganda”.

“The institutions are politically captured, the police refuse to prosecute corrupt politicians, parliament routinely stifles scrutiny and they even tried to stuff the courts with party cronies until they were forced to change the judicial appointments system,” Busuttil said.

“It is now time for the PN to stop the navel-gazing and to face the real challenge of our country, which is not the state of the Nationalist Party but the fact that our country is no longer a functioning democracy.”

Gonzi, too, downplayed the importance of the PN’s internal conflicts, saying they were part of day-to-day political life. While they should be addressed, the party must not let them divert its focus.

“The opposition represents almost half the people and it should focus on helping the country face the current immense risks, because there are people’s livelihoods at stake,” he said.

“Bernard Grech has the necessary qualities to take the right political decisions that will help take the country forward during this delicate time, and this new mandate should enable him to do it more confidently, because the councillors have clearly shown they have faith in him.”

Gonzi refuses to believe that councillors voted for Grech out of resignation, lack of options or because they feared another leadership contender would create more cracks in the party.

“I know PN councillors and they vote with confidence, not resignation. They will not be passive in the face of such an important decision, and I respect them a lot for that,” he said.

“If they voted for him, it’s because they have faith in him. They have the will, and that will must spread to others.”

Gonzi himself ran his own one-horse race in 2012. Amid internal turmoil, he decided to take stock of who was behind him and who was not. He won 96.5 per cent of the vote.

“I had decided to go for that election because the country required us to move on and focus on the crucial challenges ahead,” he recalled.

“We must rediscover our true purpose as politicians – to serve our country in the best possible way and work relentlessly for the common good. Politicians must forget their personal interests and focus on what is best for the country. I fear the political spectrum is losing that sense of immense responsibility we carry when we are elected to office.

“PN has proudly been the author of our country’s destiny, and that is how it should remain. Saturday’s mandate should enable it to move forward.”

Busuttil said fair electoral competition has become impossible.

“It is the absence of a democratic level-playing that is producing these artificial landslide Labour victories and not the state of the PN,” he said.

“Unless our democracy is resuscitated with meaningful changes highlighted by the European Parliament, Council of Europe and GRECO just this week, there will be no functioning democracy in Malta and no democratic choice no matter how many leaders the PN changes.”