The Nationalist Party still looks down on people and it must change that attitude if it wants to move forward and become an alternative government, PN leader Bernard Grech told party members on Sunday.

During a frank speech at the end of the PN’s annual General Council meeting at  party headquarters, Grech acknowledged the party faces tough challenges, but called on supporters to remain firm and not give in to discouraging poll numbers.  He however called for a change of attitudes, insisting that those within the party needed to work together and have confidence in each other if they were to take the party forward.

“We still look down on people. Nobody is better than anybody. We need to believe this – that nobody is worse than us and we are not better than anyone else,” he said, urging supporters to encourage each other.

“The challenges we face are but an opportunity that should motivate us to work together and move forward.”

Grech said people in the PN often reflected with too much nostalgia on the past or dreamt too much about the future.

“We need to focus on what we can do today for a better tomorrow,” he said. “We can only create a good future by acting together today.”

He also observed that those who worked the hardest criticised the least, and those who criticised the loudest were the ones who usually did nothing.

The PN, he said, had a duty to strengthen itself because only by being strong could it offer the country a better future.

“It is only through a strong Nationalist Party that we can prevent a Labour government from doing whatever it wants. If you believe that, rise and work for this purpose,” he said.

“It is only through this party that we can do good for this country. As individuals, we are nothing and we can do nothing.”

He also reiterated that in the same way as a father did everything for his family and placed his family before himself, he too was focusing all his energies on the party and took all of his decisions in the interests of the party. 

The Sunday Times reported earlier that Grech had told MPs that he was prepared to do "whatever is best for the party and the country” as PN strategists pinned their hopes on Roberta Metsola eventually taking over the leadership of the struggling party.

The meeting of the PN’s annual General Council was themed ‘politics of trust and hope’ with several speakers lamenting that for the first time in history, people are seriously and worryingly becoming disenchanted with politics and were losing confidence in their politicians.

‘The institutions are failing at every level’

MP Mark Anthony Sammut, who is also president of the PN General Council, opened the meeting saying PN had a duty to offer an alternative government and restore people’s confidence in politics because a Labour government had caused the institutions to fail “on every level”.

The institutions failed Bernice Cassar, a mother who pleaded for help to no avail, he said. Her cries were not heard, only the gunshots that killed her were heard.

The institutions failed other victims like Pelin Kaya and assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, he added, as well as 13 prisoners who died in the span of three years in prison, as a result of “terror, bullying and cruelty”. The state also failed construction victims like Miriam Pace and Jean Paul Sofia.

“Our institutions failed a four-year-old migrant girl who died at sea because we didn’t save her,” Sammut said.

“In a few weeks, we’ll be celebrating the death of a man who was given vinegar to drink when he said he was thirsty on the cross. This girl wasn’t even given that.”

The government also failed to give the country a secure electricity supply, Sammut said, arguing that last week’s power cuts during the powerful storm were also caused due to the fact that Electrogas power plant came to a halt as the tanker supplying it with LNG had to be pulled away from its jetty for safety reasons.

“It’s a system that works only in calm weather,” he said.

“While the crew on the LNG tanker struggled to pull the vessel to safety, the politicians that created this problem were comfortable at home, away from the tempest.”

During his address, party secretary general Michael Piccinino added that were it not for the PN government’s investment in the interconnector, the country would have completely lost power during this week’s storm.

‘Malta becoming increasingly unrecognisable

PN deputy leader Alex Perici Calascione urged the party to remember its duty for the good of the nation, and to “rise above everything” and use the talents of many people to bring about the positive change that it was well-known for.

Malta is becoming increasingly unrecognisable, unfair and unsafe, he said, and people increasingly expected the PN to address these issues. A lot was being done and there were many good initiatives, but they were not always given the importance they deserved, he said.

Opportunists, cowards and armchair critics 

University academic Professor Mary Anne Lauri, who is also the party’s head of political research, urged party members to look away from rumours and people who try to stifle the PN’s progress.

“Opportunists join a party when it’s winning. Cowards run away from a party when it faces challenging times. And armchair critics are comfortable having a lot of opinions,” she said.

“But you are here because you are neither opportunists nor cowards or armchair critics. You are here because you are people of principle – because you believe that the PN has, in the past, offered people a politics of courage and hope, and we can still offer that again if we unite behind the values that make this party.”

She also urged party supporters to remember that opinion polls have a margin of error and warned that the party should not rush into making decisions based on surveys.

“Let’s be wise. A survey is not a snapshot of reality, it is an indication of it,” she said.

Secretary general Michael Piccinino said the PN had a duty to offer hope and inspiration to people and that party members should ask themselves what they could do more and better to advance the party’s causes.

“Despite all the differences we might have, that which unites us is far more powerful,” he said.

Addressing the General Council were also MPs David Agius, Graziella Attard Previ, Toni Bezzina, Alex Borg, Albert Buttigieg, Ryan Callus, Mario de Marco, Beppe Fenech Adami, Graziella Galea, Paula Mifsud Bonnici, Stanley Zammit and MEP David Casa.

De Marco sounded his concern about the party seeming more interested in the past than in the future.

“Let’s admit that for many people, our party appears to be looking only at the past,” he said.

“It’s good that we are pro-life, but that doesn’t mean we should be conservative.”

Former minister Ċensu Galea, journalist Dione Borg, young activist Julia Galea, Raymond Caruana’s nephew Stephan Caruana and councillors Doris Zammit and Jean Paul Barbara also delivered speeches.

Barbara said the government was not properly addressing the rising cost of living and was only interested in giving stimulus cheques a few days before the election.

“If that stimulus cheque was sent to people because of the rising cost of living, why doesn’t the government send another cheque now? Because we are still struggling with the rising cost of living,” he said.

Several speakers also complained about young people’s wish to leave the country, overpopulation, unbridled construction, environmental destruction, the rising cost of living, systemic corruption, a biased national broadcaster and increasing theft in towns and villages.

And many of them expressed confidence that a united Nationalist Party could once again become a beacon of hope, progress, security and justice.