The race is now on for the election of a new leader of the Nationalist Party. Four candidates – Simon Busuttil, Mario de Marco, Francis Zammit Dimech and Raymond Bugeja – have entered the race and have until May 4 to convince the party’s 900 councillors that they have what it takes to renew the party and make it electable once again.

Whoever is elected will not have an easy task over the next five years. The Nationalist Party lost the election by a staggering 37,000 votes, the largest margin in Malta’s post-independence electoral history. It will take a massive effort by the new party leader to reverse this trend and persuade voters that the PN is once again ready to govern.

The reasons for the PN’s huge defeat are various and have been repeated over and over again: the PN was tired after nearly 15 years in government, it was out of touch with the electorate, it failed to acknowledge that society had changed, it was riddled with backbench unrest, it was super-sensitive to media criticism and it committed a number of major blunders such as the ministerial salary increase, the huge increase in utility tariffs and the public transport reform fiasco.

That is now history and the leadership candidates have to look ahead, acknowledge the party’s mistakes and present their platform for the future.

The candidates all possess good qualities, though whether a low-profile businessman with zero political experience like Mr Bugeja is the ideal candidate to lead the Nationalist Party is certainly debateable. Furthermore, his declaration that he will not be speaking to the media during this campaign shows both a lack of experience and political immaturity.

The three other candidates have much to offer the party. Simon Busuttil has an excellent record as an MEP, has a forward-looking European outlook on politics, is a very good communicator and his political convictions are centrist in orientation. Crucially he has made it clear that his aim is to once again make the PN a people’s party in which all sectors of society feel comfortable.

Mario de Marco has an excellent track record as Minister of Tourism in the previous Nationalist Government. Tourism, in fact, was one of the success stories of the Gonzi Administration and Dr de Marco played an important part in this feat. The former minister is known to be a bridge- builder, an important characteristic for any future party leader, and has pledged “less divisive and negative” politics if elected, which is certainly welcome. He also has a modern outlook.

Francis Zammit Dimech is without doubt the most experienced of all the leadership candidates, having served in Parliament since 1987 and given his first ministerial appointment in 1990. This is certainly an asset, as is his ability to communicate well and his closeness to the party grassroots. He has also pledged to make the PN the people’s party it once was.

We look forward to a positive healthy contest within the PN, one in which policies and ideas are openly debated in true democratic spirit.

The Nationalist Party, which can be so proud of its history and which has been the catalyst for positive change in Malta over the past decades, needs to once again identify itself with society’s changing needs. The election of a new party leader will hopefully be the first step in this direction. May the best man win.

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