I recently voted, together with 881 Nationalist Party councillors, in the election for a new PN leader. The party is now in opposition and it needs to reinvent itself in order to become a real people’s party.

During its glorious history the PN has been the protagonist and catalyst of change. George Borg Olivier achieved independence, Eddie Fenech Adami made European Union membership a reality and Lawrence Gonzi turned Malta into a financial centre and took us into the eurozone.

What’s next? With the spread of the economic crisis in Europe one of the main themes in the coming years will be the fight against poverty.

According to the National Statistics Office, in 2012 almost 64,000 people in Malta, over 15 per cent of the population, of whom almost 17,000 are children, are ‘at risk of poverty’.

In my opinion this is an important issue which the last PN government failed to give due consideration to and address in a proper way. It is true that a large sector of Maltese society benefitted from free higher education and other EU opportunities however such opportunities did not reach another ever growing sector of the Maltese population.

The raising of the minimum wage according to the annual cost of living increase is simply not enough. As a party in opposition the PN must create a policy in this area and reach out to this segment of society. A wide debate on the matter should be held with the social partners and Church organisations operating in this field, especially Caritas.

From now onwards the Nationalist Party must once again start to dictate the national political agenda. In this case a more radical approach to combat poverty in society and more generous social measures are needed.

Combatting poverty is an onerous task that any relevant party in a democratic system must always keep at heart. I hope that the PN under the leadership of Simon Busutill will give a voice to the poor.