Adrian Delia’s election as the leader of the Nationalist Party is an extraordinary achievement. A complete outsider with no political experience who had little support among Nationalist MPs, he managed to convince the majority of party members that he was the right person at the right time to take over the leadership and adopt a ‘new way’ of conducting politics.

Dr Delia’s immediate priority now is to unite the party after a divisive leadership campaign. He has made a good start by stressing the importance of party unity and by promising to reach out to all those who did not support his leadership bid.

The new PN leader, however, must go further in his pursuit of party unity. He should encourage and support Chris Said – his leadership rival who received nearly 48 per cent of the vote of party members – to run for deputy leader for parliamentary affairs. Such a move would be sensible and would go a long way to heal divisions within the party.

A more urgent challenge for Dr Delia is to secure a parliamentary seat in order to become the Leader of the Opposition. Shortly before the leadership election he had stressed that this was no longer an issue, giving the impression that a deal had already been struck with an MP to give up his or her seat for him. This is far from the case. It is important that this matter be resolved soon, otherwise Dr Delia’s credibility will be severely damaged and the PN will end up in the ridiculous situation of having two de facto leaders.

Dr Delia’s next task would be to reach out to Maltese society and to broaden the PN’s appeal in the country. While deciding what it stands for, how it differs from the Labour Party and what policy areas it intends to focus on, it must also plan to appeal to both traditional conservative Nationalists on the one hand and the liberals and secularists on the other.

His reference to ‘Latini’ and ‘Kattolici’ during his Independence Day speech on Wednesday might appeal to a certain faction but is not exactly a call that resonates widely in today’s Malta. Otherwise, he was on the right track in chastising the Labour government for wanting to “commercialise” the human body by virtue of its stand on prostitution, expressing his belief in family values and challenging Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to allow a free vote on matters of conscience.

Dr Delia will also need to make new inroads among low-income voters, the self-employed as well as people who are fed up of the divisive politics of hate. And he will need to boost the party’s environmental credentials in order to really distinguish the PN from Labour. His pledge to make the economy work for everyone augured well, as was his criticism of the government’s very poor environment and transport record and his view that Malta is too small to be so politically divided. He also pledged to have zero tolerance towards corruption – fine words on which he will be closely scrutinised.

If the new PN leader gets the balance right, he will stand a reasonable chance of leading his party to victory at the next election. He faces a formidable Labour electoral machine which the PN would be wise to emulate.

It is absolutely crucial, though, that Dr Delia better explain himself with regard to the allegations made over his financial dealings as well as over his personal financial situation. In today’s interview he does a poor job of it. The country cannot afford to have an Opposition leader constantly on the defensive, especially when the PN needs to focus so much on the fight against corruption.

Finally, the PN must decide whether it is to continue its collaboration with the Democratic Party, which at the moment seems to be very fragile. Perhaps it makes more sense for this partnership to end rather than having senior members of the PN’s junior coalition partner constantly sniping at Dr Delia, thus undermining the alliance.

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