Eddie Fenech Adami faced the prospect of being removed as leader of the Nationalist Party after the 1996 election defeat as Louis Galea stoked the flames of change.
The revelation is found in Dr Fenech Adami’s autobiography Eddie: My Journey, published by Allied Publications, which was launched yesterday.
Dr Fenech Adami says he had confronted Dr Galea, a long-standing ally, but the matter never went far because the issue was overshadowed by developments.
The PN had just lost the election by 7,000 votes to the Labour Party, led by Alfred Sant.
In just four years, Dr Sant had turned a 13,000-vote deficit into a landslide victory, bringing to an end a decade of PN rule.
The defeat also spelt the end of the PN’s project to anchor Malta within the European Union, a prospect that, Dr Fenech Adami admits, had preoccupied him “a great deal”.
Dr Fenech Adami says he assumed “full responsibility” for the defeat, which he deemed to be a personal failure and speaks of his initial reaction to step down.
However, he admits that, after several friends urged him to reconsider, not least the late Fr Peter Serracino Inglott, and after receiving an overwhelming vote of confidence at the general council, he decided to stay on.
“I wanted to give party members the opportunity, through a secret ballot, to decide whether they wanted me to continue as leader,” he says.
Councillors obliged and Dr Fenech Adami continued at the helm of the party he had taken charge of in 1977 when a group of young party functionaries, led by Dr Galea, secretly agreed to force George Borg Olivier out.
But as the weeks rolled on, Dr Fenech Adami says he got to know that some people within the party, “principally Louis Galea”, were talking about a need for change.
He says there was nothing wrong with that and admits that, if a movement within the party wanted a new leader, he was prepared to play ball.
“But I did not want things to be done behind my back. I took the bull by the horns and confronted Louis, spelling out my position.
“I made it clear I would even back a successor, though at that point the party was itself in doubt as to who that could be.”
Dr Fenech Adami says Guido de Marco was an unlikely candidate despite having a staunch group of supporters.
“Apart from anything else, he [Prof. de Marco] was older than me. And Lawrence Gonzi, who was elected for the first time in that election, had not yet emerged as a potential leader. That made Louis the only realistic alternative.”
However, the matter was not to last very long.
Dr Fenech Adami says the political scenario started to alter very quickly and, almost immediately, people were saying this was no time for the party to make a change.
“On the contrary, we needed to consolidate our image and objectives. The matter, therefore, died a natural death,” he recalls.
Galea stoked the flames of change in PN
The Labour administration started facing internal dissent and trouble brewed in Parliament as former prime minister Dom Mintoff abstained on the Budget until, finally, bringing the government down in 1998.
After just 22 months in power, Dr Sant was forced to call an election and Dr Fenech Adami led the PN to victory.
With the EU project getting painstakingly back on track, Dr Fenech Adami went on to win the 2003 election.
He retired from the party leadership in February 2004 and, in April that year, was appointed President.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com