The Nationalist Party must rebuild its structures and its credibility in an attempt to bring back those who have shifted allegiance, according to former Tourism Minister Mario de Marco.

We need to regain the trust of the younger generations

In a Talking Point today, Dr de Marco makes a case for the party to conduct a soul-searching exercise over Saturday’s heavy electoral defeat.

“We need to forget the hurt, forget our pride and work to bring back into the fold those who shifted allegiance. We need to regain the trust of the younger generations. It may no longer be cool to be a Nationalist. Being no longer the establishment will help, but it will not be enough. We have to earn their respect,” he wrote.

Dr de Marco, seen by many as a possible contender to replace Lawrence Gonzi as leader, said the party must analyse what went wrong but then look to the future rather than cry over its past.

He said that the general election result, which saw the party losing power to Labour by a landslide of more than 35,000 votes, was not the result of one factor but of many things that went wrong.

At the same time it was the result of a party being the victim of its own successes.

“It is also perhaps the result of our party ignoring the signs on the wall for too long,” he wrote.

Dr de Marco said his party would remain vigilant in opposition to ensure that the new government’s decisions would not undo what had been achieved in the past years.