The Nationalist Party's outgoing general secretary Chris Said this morning thanked former Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono, who has resigned from the PN following the arraignment of her husband over the “works for votes” scandal for her 28 years of service to the party.
“Everybody acknowledged the fact that she did a lot for Gozitans, and this should be never forgotten.
"She chose the honourable way, that of resigning from the party so as not to cast any shadow during the court proceedings,” he said.
Speaking in his home town of Nadur, Dr Said outlined the main challenges he faced in his two-year stint as general secretary which will come to an end this month and his next challenge to regain the lost ground in the sister island.
Dr Said’s exit follows the decision of PN leader Simon Busuttil who tasked him to relinquish his post within the party structure to focus on Gozo, where the party’s support is in decline.
He said that following Giovanna Debono’s departure there was an urgent need to fill the gap especially as the other Nationalist MP, Frederick Azzopardi, was also on the way out as he had already declared he would not be contesting the next general election.
He said he accepted Dr Busuttil’s challenge to focus on Gozo wholeheartedly.
Dr Said recounted that in 2013 he had stepped in as general secretary at a very difficult time for the party following a disastrous defeat, and the party’s commercial entities in a dire financial situation.
“I was aware that I would have to take difficult and unpopular decisions, but a lot of people understood that this was being done to move forward,” he said.
“This was no easy job, as I had to decrease the number of employees in the commercial entities. I spent endless nights trying to find the least damaging solution. However, if no decisions were taken the repercussions would have been very serious,” Dr Said remarked.
On a political level, he said reforms were enacted in the party’s statute which led to the first party convention and the creation of 10 policy fora.
The PN, he said, also had to face two electoral tests, which saw the party elect three MEPs for the first time and make some inroads in last month’s council elections.
Dr Said also pointed that in spite of the drawbacks the Nationalist Party managed to fund its recent campaign and would soon publish the accounts.
He expressed his belief that the the party could regain lost ground in the remaining three years of this legislature, saying the recent council elections had shown that the party had halved the gap.