The PN has set as a target the election of three MEPs next May, Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday as he went into his first formal meeting with the party’s two newly elected deputy leaders.

It would be very presumptuous of me to expect the PN can turn a 36,000 vote deficit into a majority in just a year

Addressing the media before meeting Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami, deputy leaders for party and parliamentary affairs respectively, Dr Busuttil said that, following the electoral defeat, the PN had many hurdles to overcome.

These were both internal and on a national level.

The election of a new general secretary next week should put the PN in a position to start a fresh page with a new generation of leadership, he said.

The European Parliament election in May would mark the first electoral test for the PN in opposition and the party would do its utmost to elect its third MEP for the first time.

Despite the PN being the party that made EU membership possible, the PL has always managed to elect more MEPs than the PN since 2004.

Replying to questions on whether the PN was expecting to win a majority of votes next year, Dr Busuttil said three seats would not necessarily translate into a majority of votes.

“It would be very presumptuous of me to expect that the PN can turn a 36,000 vote deficit into a majority in just a year.

“That would be quite an achievement of the new leadership,” Dr Busuttil said jokingly.

He expects the report on the electoral defeat to be presented to the party later this week.

While the main conclusions would be published, he said, the party would have to decide on the extent of commercial information the report will include prior to its media release.

A general council will discuss the report at the beginning of June.

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