Nationalist leadership contender Mario de Marco has said he is “radically different” from his father, the late President Guido de Marco, who served as party deputy leader for many years.
“If there are councillors who are thinking of voting for me because of what my father represented, I don’t wish to disappoint them. I am different from him,” he told reporters at a question and answer session at The Times’ newsroom.
“I resemble my mother, not my father ... My father was an extrovert. I am not. He had a tendency of taking on things and then seeing how to handle them, whereas I like to weigh out the options and take in the full scenario before deciding,” he said.
One thing I am totally against is having a cult of a leader
Dr de Marco, a father of two, described his leadership candidature as “the hardest decision” he ever had to take, primarily because of his family.
Recalling the difficulties he faced as a child because of his father’s involvement in politics, he said: “I can probably count on one hand the number of times we had the chance to go for a walk or ride a bike.”
He said he had even drafted a letter detailing the reasons for not contesting the May 4 election, but he changed his mind on the eve of the deadline when his wife pointed out he would live to regret not offering his contribution.
So why did he not contest the post of deputy leader before the election campaign?
“I had reservations about having a deputy leadership race in the middle of a campaign ... Three months before an election, we needed to be as united as possible,” he said, adding that the two contenders provided ample choice to councillors.
He felt his contribution would be better made at a district level and was part of a “collective effort” which managed to rein in the swing from PN to Labour in the first district.
Asked if he had coordinated from behind the scenes the candidature of Tonio Fenech, whom he endorsed, Dr de Marco said “nobody urged anybody [to contest]” even though “there was a risk of Simon Busuttil remaining uncontested”.
Although councillors chose Dr Busuttil because of his potential to add a fresh outlook to the leadership, Dr de Marco said Mr Fenech would have helped give the PN’s campaign a stronger emphasis on the economy.
“But all that is behind us,” he said, when asked whether Mr Fenech would have given the PN a better chance at the election than Dr Busuttil.
Dr Busuttil, a fellow leadership contender, said last Tuesday that the PN’s defeat “could have been worse”, but when faced with this comment, Dr de Marco said: “It could have been better too.”
However, he refused to be critical of any of his rivals.
“I would be the last to say I am most suited for PN leadership,” he said. He had not tried to convince a single councillor he was the best choice.
Asked about his performance as minister responsible for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Dr de Marco stressed he was the minister “responsible for environment, not construction”.
“My primary responsibility was to give Mepa an environmental dimension and a transparent one,” he said.
However, he admitted that he did not achieve all he wanted to, primarily because he had had only a few years to deal with problems that had been around for much longer.
Talking about the PN’s hand-ling of the divorce issue, Dr de Marco said legislators had a primary responsibility to implement the referendum result.
“Otherwise, we might as well not have had a referendum,” he said, adding later that he was not disappointed by Lawrence Gonzi’s decision to vote against because he knew it was a big “issue of conscience” for him.
Dr de Marco said the PN also found difficulty dealing with issues like gay rights, putting legislation on the table which was “a far cry” from what they had been expecting.
“There were various instances where we gave off the impression that we were very conserv-ative,” he said, adding that there were some very conservative elements in the party, such as former Transport Minister Austin Gatt.
However, Dr de Marco was non-committal on issues like gay marriage, saying it was “not yet on the country’s data stream”.
He said the PN should have permanent focus groups to constantly update its policies on crucial issues, whether they are about civil liberties or topics like the environment.
Giving an example, he said he was totally against land reclam-ation for real estate purposes, but did not want to impose his views on the party, which should always remain larger than the leader.
“One thing I am totally against is having a cult of a leader,” he said, adding that while he understood the strategy behind the slogan “GonziPN”, the Government had paid the price for what the PN had gained in the election.
Asked about Labour’s decisions so far, Dr de Marco said he had expected Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to be “magnanimous” in victory but his first decisions proved otherwise.
“I think (former Prime Minister) Alfred Sant was more magnanimous,” Dr de Marco said, listing some of the controversial appointments made by the Government in its first days.
Nationalist leadership contender Mario de Marco speaking to journalists at The Times yesterday. Photo: Jason Borg