Nationalist Party leader-elect Simon Busuttil was not expecting such a swift election on Saturday and said he admired the other main contestant Mario de Marco for conceding immediately.
There is an important stage still to be played out on Wednesday
Dr Busuttil, who obtained 50.3 per cent of the votes to Dr de Marco’s 38.5 per cent, was convinced that the leadership contest would go to a second round, and had prepared neither an acceptance nor a concession speech.
“I am full of admiration for what Mario did for the party on Saturday,” he told Times of Malta yesterday.
Dr Busuttil, 44, an MEP up to last December, went to great lengths to say that he did not consider himself party leader yet.
“There is an important stage still to be played out on Wednesday – it’s only if I manage 66 per cent of the votes will I be elected leader of the party,” he said.
Till then he will be trying his best to speak, meet or call as many of the 900 councillors as possible “to try and bring them on board”, although he does not envisage problems because “Mario made a very clear endorsement on Saturday”.
Speaking from his home in Lija, flanked by his faithful three-year-old golden retriever Jipsie, Dr Busuttil said he spoke to Dr de Marco briefly on Saturday.
“But I will be speaking to him again before Wednesday,” he said.
He hoped that Dr de Marco, together with the two other contestants, Francis Zammit Dimech and Raymond Bugeja, would remain actively and deeply involved in the party “in whatever position” – and he would be discussing their areas of interest with them.
Asked whether he hoped Dr de Marco would re-think his stand on not contesting the deputy leadership he said: “It is first and foremost a personal decision that he has to take.”
He explained that, throughout the contest, he was not willing to indicate preferences or get into alliances, so as not to influence the process. “I’m not taking any sides but someone like Mario would be eminently qualified for the job,” he said.
Dr Busuttil, who said he would still like to be known as Simon, said that on his first day in office his priority would be the party’s financial situation.
He will be appointing a group of experts to study the situation and come up with recommendations for the short-term cash flow issues in “a very limited time period”.
“I will then take the decisions based on their recommendations,” he said, adding that he would be seeking advice on long-term issues of financial stability and sustainability of the party.
Dr Busuttil did not have a salary as a deputy leader. “I do not think that the party ever paid a salary to the deputy leader. I’m not sure about the leader, but it is clear the party is not in a position to pay anything to the leader or the deputy leader,” he said.
He stopped his private practice in 2010 due to his MEP commitments and “if all goes well” on Wednesday he would not reactivate it.
The first phone call he made on Saturday when the result was out was to his two sons aged 13 and 16.
The living room walls are lined with their photos but he is very protective of their privacy. What was their reaction? “They were proud ... I’m not quite sure whether they have the full grasp of what’s going to change but I will make sure that this will be a seamless transition for them.”
He said that the main difference in his life now would be the move from the international stage to the national one.
“But I will keep a lot of my European experience and try to inject it and transmit it to the local scene,” he said.
He described his upcoming role in rebuilding the party as “exciting”, but felt that he had huge responsibility to work hard to “regain the respect and trust of the people”.