MEP’s praise for Busuttil as possibly ‘Malta’s next prime minister’

The chairman of the European People’s party has claimed that the 2015 local council election results for the Nationalist Party has made Simon Busuttil a serious contender to be the next prime minister.

Manfred Weber congratulated Opposition leader Simon Busuttil for the local council election results, in which the party achieved 45% of the national vote in 34 localities.

The party’s loss was no bitter pill for the embattled Nationalist Party, which managed to regain St Paul’s Bay council and lose the Munxar mayorship in Gozo.

“Under Busuttil, the PN has managed to halve the gap by themselves,” Manfred Weber said from Brussels. “This is a big step forward for the PN, who are working hard to regain the people’s trust. There is a high chance that Busuttil will become Malta’s next Prime Minister.”

The Labour Party won 54% of the votes in last week’s round of local council elections, down from the 57% that they had won in 2012, the last time this round of local council elections was held.

Both parties have claimed to be pleased with the results – with the PL focusing on how their victory margin was a historic first for a ruling party in local elections, and the PN focusing on how the vote gap between themselves and the PL had shrunk by around seven percentage points since 2012.