Delia ally Pierre Portelli: Grech’s final test is Europe, then make way for Metsola

One of Adrian Delia’s chief promoters and former head of PN media, the TV producer Pierre Portelli, said the PN needs a clear succession that paves the way for Roberta Metsola to become leader of the party.

Portelli, who said he will support Bernard Grech’s bid to be re-elected leader of the PN, wrote in a Times opinion piece that a clear succession path for the PN was needed for a smooth transition for Metsola to leave Brussels in 2024 and enter the Maltese parliament through co-option.

Metsola is currently president of the European Parliament up until the European elections of 2024.

“Roberta Metsola’s name is constantly brought up. Of course, Metsola needs to lead the MEP list of candidates in 2024, for her hard-earned success will shine back on the PN. However, it will be wise for the PN to have at least one MP as a candidate in the MEP elections,” Portelli, who has occupied various PN executive posts, said.

Pierre Portelli

“If Grech needs to step down, and should Metsola decide to return to Maltese politics, an MP elected to the European Parliament would facilitate a smooth transition for her to leave Brussels and enter parliament through co-option.”

Portelli said having a clear succession path is only part of what the PN needs to do to make itself credible and attractive again.

He said as the leader who presided over the largest defeat since the 1950s, it was legitimate to ask whether Grech has the credentials to lead the PN to another election in five years’ time.

“I want to trust Grech with the party’s leadership up until the MEP elections in two years,” Portelli said, saying he will vote for Grech in the coming leadership election.

He also said Grech should use his revitalised parliamentary group for a change in tone that allows the PN to improve its performance in the MEP elections, with the lofty aim of “electing three, possibly four, MEPs”.

“If a good result is not forthcoming, then Grech must make way for someone else to lead the party in 2027,” Portelli said.

He also said the PN should get to terms with its finances and realise that its political media house is “simply not viable”, while setting up a fundraising team solely dedicated to the general election to match Labour’s communications superiority.

Portelli, who resigned his position as head of PN media before a backbench rebellion that forced Delia into a leadership contest against Grech, said he would support the incumbent leader’s bid.

“As a lifetime member of the PN’s General Council, I will be endorsing Bernard Grech’s bid. I did not vote for him in the first contest because of the way a small group of people in the PN engineered a coup to oust a democratically elected leader,” Portelli said.

“But in a short span of two years, Grech made good use of the support pledged to him by former leader Adrian Delia and managed to present a more confident party to the electorate.”

He said the PN cannot waste time with a post-electoral report that it will only ignore later. “As bad as it looks, the PN cannot close its doors and give up. But, on the other hand, it can’t afford to descend into chaos once again and waste a legislature bickering on the past.”