Outgoing secretary general Chris Said urged PN councillors to remember him for the hard decisions he had to take over the past two years and not for the people he may have hurt in the process.

"I spent countless sleepless nights to find solutions that hurt the least but all my decisions were taken to ensure the party continued functioning, continued regenerating itself and nothing else," he said to resounding applause.

This was Dr Said's last speech as secretary general since he will not contest the post again when his two-year term ends on June 3.

Dr Said was asked by PN leader Simon Busuttil to focus on Gozo after the Giovanna Debono debacle and a string of bad electoral results for the party in Gozo.

Dr Said also asked those he may have hurt in the process to forgive him.

The outgoing secretary general said in two years the party's finances were put on a sure footing: "The media outlets are not losing money, employee wages are being paid on time but more important we also regenerated the party and will continue to do so."

In a crescendo that earned him a standing ovation, Dr Said noted that the PN had cut its electoral deficit with Labour by half and this was an encouraging sign. But he cautioned that his successor still had the second half of the road to travel.

"The new secretary general has to be close to the party roots but has to reach out to those who left the party or never voted for the PN," he said, pledging his full support.

Dr Said insisted the future had to be based on the politics of honesty as a reaction to the government's departure from its promise to champion meritocracy and transparency.

"This government has created a two-tier system of people in the premier division and others in the lower division," Dr Said pointed out. He identified Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi's wife, Sai Mizzi, who was made special envoy to China, Cyrus Engerer, who was appointed the Prime Minister's trusted man in Brussels, as people close to the government and who were in the premier division, paid very handsomely.

Dr Said also mentioned former PN MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, without naming him, as another person in the premier division for getting paid well as chairman of MCST despite working only half a day.

"The rest of the people, Labourites and Nationalists, are in the lower divisions," he said.