Former PN media head says party must enter forced administration

The former Nationalist Party head of media Pierre Portelli has said the party should go into “forced administration” given the dire financial situation it is currently in.

On Sunday, PN leader Bernard Grech revealed the PN was €32 million in the red and said it was losing thousands of euros because of its media company Media.link Communications.

Businesses opt to go into administration whenever there are serious financial shortcomings, selling off their assets to third parties in a bid to settle off debts.

Portelli praised Grech’s first moves since the March election, but said he could have been “bolder with the shadow nominations and shrewder with the party’s financial status”.

During an interview on TVM programme XTRA, Grech said the PN had to be ready to sell some of its clubs. “We have to be ready to sell our każini, commercialise them… with the help of experts we will carry out a study on how to make best use of our available assets to stop the haemorrhage and cut debt,” Grech said.

Grech also admitted the PN did not have the liquidity to run an election campaign for the European Parliament and local council elections in two years’ time.

Recently Portelli said the PN needed a clear succession plan that paved the way for European Parliament President Robert Metsola to become leader of the party.

He had also said he would support Grech’s bid to be re-elected leader of the PN, suggesting that Metsola is co-opted to Maltese Parliament in 2024, once her term as president of the European Partliament came to an end in 2024.

Grech will be contesting the PN leadership again in what is very likely to be a one-horse race. Nominations opened yesterday during the PN general council that laid out the timeline for the leadership contest that has to take place because the party lost last month’s election.

In another Facebook post, former MP Franco Debono said he does not agree with the PN selling off its assets, insisting similar moves in the past did nothing to solve the party’s debt. “I believe the sale of każini is not the solution, but a mistake.”

“In the past years, anyone who had a small piece of land became rich. Is it not possible for the party to utilise such a resource like this a generate a profit?” he said.

He said band clubs are the party’s presence in towns and villages. “When the party recovers and it realises it has destroyed its presence in these areas, it will be a tragedy.”

He said the solution lies in being more creative and using każini, its television station and other resources more intelligently.

“There is no single solution which solves everything. The party must attract more people. It should not sell anything,” he said.