When Nationalists start believing in Bernard

I find it uncanny to say the least that every time I immerse myself in a milieu of Nationalist leaning voters I am faced with the same arguments. 

“We can only win this election with Roberta,” they argue.    

They then go into this diatribe about Bernard Grech being unsuitable for PN leader but they are surely aware that the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola has no intention of abandoning her Brussels post for Malta.   

Perception is a problem for politicians and Bernard Grech suffers from this even if we must admit that he has improved.  

When I ask the same people, who could replace Bernard Grech if Roberta Metsola is not interested, they all go silent. 

Surely, Grech is perceived as someone who is suffering from a lack of courage to take tough decisions. Yet, to his credit, he has stopped the bickering inside the PN. 

However, he has not managed to convince the civil society group Repubblika and its high-profile lawyer Jason Azzopardi to back down and allow the PN to take the lead.  

Every time the PN has a chance to take a leading role, the limelight is dragged away from it and onto the civil society grouping. In this way, the narrative changes much to the delight of Labour. 

Repubblika is a resilient group, but their Talibanesque approach to campaigns works actively against the chance of convincing the middle-of-the-road voter to migrate to the PN. Intentionally or not, they are contributing to keep the PN bogged down and stuck in a rut. 

I feel they know this and so it is up to Bernard Grech to confront his demons and take them head-on. 

In the late seventies and eighties, the Nationalist Party in Opposition was led by a village lawyer by the name of Eddie Fenech Adami. His nemesis at the time was within the party, apart from his political rival and giant, Dom Mintoff. Fenech Adami’s rise was stalled by Josie Muscat and the Front Freedom Fighters (FFF) who said all sort of things about Dom Mintoff. It took more than just courage for Eddie Fenech Adami to disown the right-wing FFF, but he did it and in doing so he attracted more moderate voters to the PN. 

Grech is not of the same pedigree as Fenech Adami, but he might as well take a cue from the PN’s past and solve one of the problems that haunts his leadership and the possibility for the PN to move on. 

A bizarre leadership  

The unreasonable and bizarre style of leadership in the United States is nothing but disgustingly ugly and fascist. 

But I am not too sure that the US would even be offended if they are labelled fascists. Seeing how vice president JD Vance chastised the Europeans for stepping in to block right-wing parties, it becomes abundantly clear that Trump’s administration is plagued by ignorance and a romantic attachment to right-wing politics. So much so, that they are unable to understand the reason for Europe’s fear of the right wing. 

Trump’s utterances have been incredible: Deporting two million Palestinians; calling Putin a peace maker; calling for Greenlanders to sell their land to the US; asking Canadians to consider their country as another State of the US; threatening Panama with occupation if they do not stop flirting with the Chinese; fomenting untruths; blocking transgender people from playing sports; imposing policies against gender equality in the federal government and military; blocking US aid to NGOs; implementing pushbacks of thousands of third country nationals; asking Ukraine to pay for US arms by giving up its mineral wealth; withdrawing the US from WHO; the list just goes on. 

These are only some of the measures that illustrate the madness of the Trump administration. Here we see the politics of a megalomaniac, a disruptor, a hateful man, and a fascist. 

And the whole world is confused how to deal with him. Were it not for his immense economic and military might he would have long been sidelined. 

European leaders are unable to coordinate a concerted effort to counterbalance the influence of an administration that is changing the world order and threatening to bring an uneasiness that will threaten the existence of communities and cultures.   

Malta has no option but to follow Europe and brace for the worst. We need to align with the stronger partners in Europe not to suck up to those in Europe who would rather see a strong US and a weak Europe (I am referring to Meloni and Orban). 

Robert Abela and Ian Borg need to understand what is in the best interest of our small republic and realise the dangers of genuflecting to Donald Trump and his authoritarian, disruptive and fascist politics.