The Alex and Adrian show

The urgency of an impending general election campaign was not lost on Alex Borg and Adrian Delia when they addressed supporters at their respective rallies last week. 

In Floriana, with the Independence monument as his backdrop, Borg said he will “immediately” appoint a campaign manager to start planning for the general election. 

At the Ta’ Qali national park amphitheatre Delia spoke of a “short runway” for take-off since the country “was on the cusp” of a general election. 

An executable plan 

For Borg, who has had to battle the narrative of being inexperienced, it was necessary to show he has a plan for the ‘day after’. He had to put party members’ minds at rest that if he is elected leader on 6 September, he will hit the ground running to prepare the PN for a general election. “I want to beat Robert Abela and the Labour Party,” he emphasised. 

Veteran businessperson Joe Caruana Curran, a tesserat, endorsed Borg on the night, insisting that age should not stand in the way of leadership. Caruana Curran highlighted his own experience when at the age of 26 he became president of Valletta FC, leaving other football club presidents much older than him dumbfounded by the success of his team—Valletta FC won 32 major honours between 1987 and 2003, making it the greatest period in the club’s history. 

On the night, Borg delivered a clear, executable plan that suggested he already had people in mind to fill certain roles. He kept the name of the campaign manager and the members of an audit team he will set up to help the party publish its accounts in the first 100 days, under wraps. 

But he did mention the name of George Vital Zammit as the person who will lead a national convention within the first 100 days. Vital Zammit, an academic, was entrusted by outgoing leader Bernard Grech as the person to start drawing up the PN’s election manifesto. 

And Borg would also propose a change to the party statute to reintroduce the role of deputy leader for parliamentary affairs. 

A campaign hub 

For Delia, reference to an impending general election was a way of impressing upon party members the need to have someone with experience like him at the helm. “Labour do not want Adrian Delia to lead the PN because I already beat them in parliament and in court,” he insisted with reference to the court action he took that led to the cancellation of the Vitals hospitals contract. That victory, obtained against all odds and almost single-handedly, stands as a feather in his cap. 

The former PN leader spoke on the need to create a “campaign hub” at party headquarters that will “prepare for an election” and “attract good people”. No names were dropped but the PN’s youth wings will play an important role in this election hub, he said. 

Delia also suggested the creation of a “mobile outreach unit” in the form of a repurposed bus—a rehash of an idea used in the 1996 and 1998 election campaigns—that would travel to different towns, allowing people to meet party officials and candidates. 

At the basis of what he described as a modernisation drive, Delia posited the use of artificial intelligence to help the party organise itself administratively so that public concerns, complaints and feedback are not lost in a bureaucratic labyrinth. 

Endorsing Delia’s vision of an AI-driven party machinery was Alexiei Dingli, a professor of artificial intelligence. Bar a blip in in the chest super on the pre-recorded video where Alexiei’s name was misspelt, the professor explained that Delia’s plan was doable if executed well and if it kept people at the heart of the process. 

A ‘future prime minister’ 

In a final message, Borg told supporters that members will not be electing an Opposition leader but a “future prime minister”. It was his way of projecting the “winning mentality” he has been emphasising throughout this campaign. 

“My mentality is not to reduce the gap but to win the next election,” Borg said, insisting the party had to regain its self-confidence. And his recipe for doing so is the adoption of “inclusive politics that embraces all those of goodwill”. 

With reference to the Independence monument, Borg highlighted the party’s “glorious past”—independence, EU membership, adoption of the euro and an open economy—but warned the party from being anchored to its past. “We need to look forward and think ahead,” he said, emphasising his campaign slogan, which in its English rendition was missing a ‘the’, Time Is Now (Dan il-Mument). 

But while Borg’s rally provided an uplifting tone intended to boost enthusiasm and morale, Delia’s was focussed more on issues thanks to a brief no-holds-barred on-stage interview with radio host Andrew Azzopardi. 

A ‘frustrated country’ 

“People are frustrated with their country. Frustrated with the number of imported workers, more traffic, increased pollution and corruption,” Delia emphasised when asked why he believed his own campaign slogan, We Will Win (Nirbħu), will eventually materialise. 

The issue of foreign workers cropped up with Delia feeling vindicated over the concerns he had raised more than five years ago. At the time he received flak for fomenting xenophobia. On the night, Delia flew the flag for “Malteseness” and hinting that it could be under threat, while drawing a clear distinction between Maltese people and foreigners. But this time around, his words are more likely to strike a chord in a country whose public infrastructure has buckled under the weight of rapid population increase. 

And in an attempt to assuage doubters, Delia insisted he had no skeletons in his cupboard when addressing the turbulent period at the helm of the PN between 2017 and 2020.  

“I have nothing to hide. I invite the Labour Party and all journalists to come and ask anything; I have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide,” Delia roared, insisting he was not beholden to anyone. 

A ‘note’ to ponder 

There was no currency in the song choice at the end of the respective candidate performances. Alex Borg opted for the PN anthem, Sbejħa Patrija, while Delia closed his with the 2015 hit, Fight Song. And on those notes, the tesserati went home to mull who is best poised to lead the PN into its next chapter.