Grech will recontest leadership in 2024 if PN fails to win third MEP seat

Opposition leader Bernard Grech has pledged to put his leadership up for election again in 2024, if the PN fails to win a third seat in the European elections.

The Nationalist Party has never won any of the European election outings since they were first held in 2004 after Malta became an EU member.

While Labour has constantly won a majority of votes in these elections, it also held a majority of seats – except for 2014 when Malta’s delegation to the EP grew from five to six members, with the PN clinching a third seat. It lost that seat in 2019.

“If my actions do not enable us to win a third seat in the European elections, I will put my leadership up for an internal election once again,” Grech told the PN’s party delegates at a General Council on Sunday.

The PN leader is contesting a mandatory leadership re-election, in which he is the sole contestant, after his party lost the 2022 elections by an unprecedented majority of 40,000 votes.

The 2024 election will see the popular PN candidate and now president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola probably recontesting. Hailed by insiders as a potential PN leader due to her popularity nationally and within the EU institutions, it remains to be seen if Metsola is ready to make the move from Brussels: a potential EPP victory in 2024 might even guarantee her an extended stay in the presidency of the European Parliament.

MaltaToday Survey: PN councillors say Bernard Grech should remain leader ahead of election

Grech had harsh words for his PN’s electors on the way forward for the PN within the coming years, saying the party had to overcome a €32 million debt problem first if it should be trusted with the country’s own leadership.

“It’s only if we can do things better in our own party that we can be trusted to do the same for our country. How can we ask better from our institutions, if we ourselves make compromises with these institutions? How can pledge better use of the country’s tax revenues, when we don’t administer our own finances perfectly? And how can we attract the best talent here, if we do not believe in their abilities?”

Grech said he was “not a radical” but that his stern message meant he had to take decisions that would hurt some inside a party which has often suffered from nostalgia of its former government past.

“With your support I am ready to do what must be done. I am lest to discuss, but I will decide. We do not need to discard the strong roots of this tree, but we need to prune it to ensure it can bear fruit. We must cut down on sentimentality, with diligence and maturity. We must take decisions and action.”