Roberta Metsola’s PN leadership snub is bitter pill to swallow for MPs, activists

The Nationalist Party was left with a bitter pill to swallow on Saturday when Roberta Metsola definitively ruled out contesting for party leader.

After four days of radio silence, Metsola announced that she cannot abandon her role as president of the European parliament and any solution for the PN will have to be “without her as leader”.

For many PN MPs, activists and insiders, Metsola’s declaration resembled a kick below the belt. They were still hoping of convincing her to step up and take the party’s reins into her hands following Bernard Grech’s resignation.

Evidently, the pressure that had been mounting from all quarters was not enough to convince Metsola to leave Brussels and move to Pietà.

In her statement on Saturday, Metsola said her role as president of the European parliament carries with it “global responsibilities” for the EU and Malta and this required her undivided attention. “With a sense of responsibility, this is a role I cannot abandon,” she said, ruling herself out of a PN leadership bid.

It was a crushing blow to the aspirations of many within the party. There was broad consensus among PN MPs that Metsola should be leader but they were also adamant that this had to be her fulltime job.

Several PN MPs who spoke to MaltaToday for this report insisted Metsola was best-placed to unify the party and enjoyed the gravitas of a prime minister-in-waiting.

The MPs, who were granted anonymity to be able to speak freely about internal matters, however, were insistent that any solution involving Metsola that did not contemplate her becoming leader would have simply confused the electorate. Her final decision was possibly a realisation that she could not take on the role of PN leader on a part-time basis.

“In the Maltese political context people vote to elect a party and a prime minister, not a leadership team,” a veteran MP said. “Roberta is a unifying factor and someone who enjoys widespread support as her European election result showed but she had to decide what she wanted; she could not remain in Brussels while retaining a hand on what happens in Malta because things would not have worked out well.”

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Bitter taste

But even though the conundrum of having a part-time leader has now been resolved with Metsola’s unequivocal decision not to contest, it has left a bitter taste among MPs and party functionaries.

“She snubbed the party in its hour of need,” one MP put it. The only benefit from her declaration, they insisted, is that the “road has now been cleared” for anyone willing to contest the leadership.

Metsola herself acknowledged in her statement that her decision will be criticised by many. “I know many will not agree with it. I know many will criticise it. I know that Labour, its exponents and others, will use the occasion and their machinery to manipulate and twist my decision to suit their agenda… I will always be there for our party and my country, as I have always been since my youth,” she insisted.

However, sources within the PN told MaltaToday it was people within her own party who understood her actions as betrayal. “The anger is palpable and trying to blame Labour for it is an insult to people’s intelligence,” an irate functionary told MaltaToday.

Former PN General-secretary Paul Borg Olivier in a Facebook comment left no doubt as to his feelings after Metsola’s declaration: “Simply said: Pride crushes prudence.”

Grech had asked Metsola to contest next election

Writing in MaltaToday, Bernard Grech advisor Ray Bezzina did not mince his words, saying Metsola’s unrelenting personal campaign in Malta whet the electorate’s appetite but it turned out to be “false hope”.

Bezzina says that Metsola’s announcement on Saturday came as no surprise to him. “I was in the room when Bernard asked Roberta to contest the next election as a PN candidate and no reply was forthcoming,” he reveals.

“I personally repeatedly engaged with one of her closest aides to inform them that Bernard was ready to do the ultimate sacrifice since it was evident that momentum had been built around Roberta’s prospective candidacy and that she could be in a better position to lead the PN forward at this juncture. But even here, ambiguity reigned supreme and no clear reply was forthcoming.”

Now that Metsola has ruled herself out, the gates are wide open for anybody else to step forward and announce a candidature.

Possible contenders will be gauging the level of support they enjoy, first and foremost, within the parliamentary group, and secondly among party members.

Gozitan MP Alex Borg, long touted as a future leadership contender, has so far kept his cards close to his chest.

PN members, it seems, will have to wait a while longer to know who will contest the leadership election.

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