Michael Briguglio will be PN candidate for European Parliament election next year

Michael Briguglio will be on the Nationalist Party ticket in next year’s European Parliament election, Clyde Puli has confirmed.

The PN general secretary said the former Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson was “a very valid person for the party”.

Puli was being interviewed on The Malta Independent’s In-Depth.

Briguglio is the second PN MEP candidate, alongside lawyer and TV presenter Frank Psaila, to be confirmed so far.

They will be on the same ticket as incumbents Roberta Metsola, David Casa and Francis Zammit Dimech.

Briguglio joined PN leader Adrian Delia for a walkabout in Gżira lately, giving a clear indication of his intention to take on a bigger role within the PN.

Briguglio meeting PN supporters at a party club

Briguglio was elected a councillor in Sliema on the AD ticket but resigned from the party last year, as he joined Simon Busuttil’s Forza Nazzjonali. He kept his seat on the council and formally joined the PN in May.

Puli said the PN had also approached family lawyer Bernard Grech and Peter Agius, who serves in the secretariat of European Parliament president Antonio Tajani. Agius had been the European Parliament's representative in Malta before moving to Tajani's office.

The PN general secretary said that in the coming weeks the party would be announcing the first group of candidates for the MEP elections.

PN general secretary Clyde Puli interviewed by Rachel Attard on In-depth

Puli also confirmed that a commission set up by the former PN leader to scrutinise and select candidates, led by former European Commissioner Joe Borg, was disbanded.

"At the moment, I and a small number of other people, are scouting to find the best candidates… once the prospective candidates were established, they would go before the party's executive for approval,” Puli said, adding this was a return to the system used in the past.

Correction: a previous reference to Peter Darmanin has been removed because of mistaken identity of the man pictured in the photo