WATCH | Bernard Grech: No contact with Metsola ahead of resignation announcement

Opposition leader Bernard Grech said he did not speak with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola ahead of his resignation.

“The choice for next leader is not mine, but the party members’,” he said, when asked about whether he spoke to the Nationalist MEP. Metsola, even during Grech’s tenure as leader, was widely touted to take over the party’s reins.

Grech made the surprise announcement on Tuesday afternoon, a couple of days after MaltaToday's latest survey showed his party's abysmal polling and a significantly low trust rating.

The Opposition leader did concede Metsola has achieved significantly better trust ratings “over the past months and years”.

He insisted the decision was personal, and no one forced it on him. “I took the decision serenely.”

Asked what went wrong, a year on the dot after the PN’s surprise result in the MEP election, Grech beat around the bush, saying no one had predicted the result.

“Polls were showing a 25,000-vote gap, which ended up being 8,000,” he pointed out.

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