PN executive president Ann Fenech addressing the party’s general council meeting last night. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

No major issue overshadowed the last election, giving people the chance to vote on matters affecting them personally, according to the Nationalist Party’s newly appointed executive president, Ann Fenech.

She said this was one of the reasons why the PN lost so colossally despite such a good performance in government in an extremely difficult international context.

“There was another important element. The Nationalist Party spent 25 years in Government, besides those two years everyone forgets...

“Nothing we could have done – even if we were all gilded in gold – could have changed the fact that people wanted change,” she told the party’s general council, themed Forward (‘Il quddiem), last night

The lead author of the PN’s defeat report added the hundreds of points it contained were used by voters as an “excuse” or “justification” to refrain from voting PN or to vote PL.

In her first formal speech as a party official, Dr Fenech elaborated on one point mentioned in the report: that Labour leader Joseph Muscat benefited from the death of Labour icon Dom Mintoff.

She said that after distancing himself from his party’s history to reach out to people who despised Mr Mintoff, Dr Muscat was given the opportunity to comfortably eulogise the controversial former Prime Minister and win over his loyal hardcore supporters.

Urging the party to end its healing process, Dr Fenech said it would be difficult to win back 36,000 votes.

“But these are not millions. The advantage of this country is that we all know each other,” she said, adding that the party had to target sections of voters directly and build thousands of paths into the party.

Speaking before Dr Fenech, incoming general secretary, Chris Said, paid tribute to those who occupied the office before him.

He said the PN had accepted with humility the electorate’s message. It would work tirelessly to start fulfilling the aspirations of voters once again.

“The road will not be easy. Some of us might give up or feel the burden of this challenge is too much to shoulder. But I can assure you of one thing: we will get there,” he said, adding that Nationalists had never given up in the past.

The deputy leader for party affairs, Beppe Fenech Adami, urged the party to admit past mistakes.

He singled out three sectors of society who could have felt sidelined by the PN in the recent past: youngsters who are not students, owners of small businesses and bigger businessmen who invested so much in the country.

Urging party activists to work hard to win back people’s trust, Dr Fenech Adami said: “From tomorrow, we are no longer the party that lost the election seven weeks ago but the party that will win the next election.”

The party’s headquarters was set up slightly differently to recent general council meetings, with the foyer converted into a cafeteria.