Former Education Minister Louis Galea, who played a major role in modernising the Nationalist Party when he was general secretary in the late 1970s and 1980s, will not be part of the next Parliament.
During his 10 years as secretary general, Dr Galea broadened the PN's base in order to also attract the support of working class voters.
Dr Galea, who received 3,601 first-count votes on the two districts (fifth and sixth) he contested, does not stand a chance of being elected through a casual election because none are taking place in those districts.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that what Dr Galea was going through was one of those experiences one had to be prepared for when entering such a race as a general election. He was very sorry for all those who did not make it. One had to bow one's head to the decisions and sovereignty of the people and offer one's services, Dr Gonzi said soon after being sworn in as Prime Minister.
Dr Galea was a "son of the party" (tifel tal-partit), PN general secretary Joe Saliba said when contacted. "He was the general secretary of the PN during times of reform, which were difficult," he said.
Dr Galea was described by Austin Gatt, who succeeded him as general secretary in 1987, as "the person who built" the PN.
"The PN as we know it today did not exist before Louis Galea became general secretary. The fact that he has not been elected is not only a loss for the Nationalist Party but, more so, for the country," Dr Gatt said, adding that Dr Galea was one of the best ministers the PN ever had.
Born in Mqabba on January 2, 1948 Dr Galea became a member of the PN's general council and executive committee in 1972 and sat on the administrative council between 1975 and 1987.
A lawyer by profession, Dr Galea became general secretary in 1977, the same year Eddie Fenech Adami was elected party leader, following four years as president of the PN Youth Movement. Mr Saliba described the decade during which Dr Galea was general secretary as "a time during which a total reform started within the PN".
"This was the period when party clubs were opened almost all over the islands. He also introduced statutory reforms and was a person who worked a lot for the party to carry out all the necessary changes."
Apart from his work as general secretary, Mr Saliba said Dr Galea deserves credit for the important reforms he brought about in the educational sector as Minister for Education. "He was a minister who brought about big reforms in education and the changes that took place - even at a structural level within schools - were his ideas," he said.
Although Dr Galea's absence from Parliament was a big loss for the PN, Mr Saliba has no doubt that the former minister will continue with his work for the party "in the same energetic way he always demonstrated in whichever position he had".
Although their ideas on the sector might have differed, the Labour Party's spokesman for education, Carmelo Abela said that, on a personal level he felt sorry that Dr Galea had not been elected after so many years involved in politics. However, on a political level Mr Abela said this might have been a message that, despite what appears from outside, in education things are not doing that well.
Dr Galea was first elected to Parliament in 1976 and retained his seat at every subsequent general election until he surprisingly lost his seat last Saturday. Between 1981 and 1987, when the PN was in opposition, he was shadow minister for labour and social services. When the PN was elected to office in 1987 he was appointed Minister for Social Policy. In 1992, he was made Minister for Home Affairs and Social Development and in 1995 he was appointed Minister for Social Development responsible for health, social security, family and social welfare, the elderly and women. Between 1996 and 1998, when the PN went into opposition, he was shadow education minister and, in 1998 and 2003, after two consecutive PN electoral victories, he served as Education Minister.
In 2004, when Dr Fenech Adami stepped down as Prime Minister, Dr Galea ran for party leader in a three-man race with Lawrence Gonzi and John Dalli. After Dr Gonzi was elected leader and Prime Minister, Dr Galea became one of Dr Gonzi's closest colleagues in the Cabinet.
During his student years Dr Galea was one of the main organisers of the campaign for better housing in 1968.He was also president of the Students' Catholic Guild and secretary of the Students' Representative Council in 1972, being elected president of the council the following year. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969 and as a lawyer in 1975, after which he held teaching posts in government and Church schools.
As PN general secretary between 1977 and 1987 he was responsible for setting up the party's youth wing, the women's section, the workers' secretariat and a migrants'secretariat.
Several attempts to contact Dr Galea yesterday proved futile.