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Karl Schembri
With two electoral defeats and the ‘sudden’ change of Foreign Minister, the Nationalist Party Executive Committee will be meeting this Thursday, almost a month since the European Parliament election was held.
The announcement was made by the Party’s Secretary General, Joe Saliba, speaking to MaltaToday Friday. Asked why the Party did not convene the Executive to discuss the electoral defeat earlier, Saliba said the Executive met once every month and that by Thursday only three weeks would have passed since the election.
“Three weeks is the right time to discuss our issues,” he said.
The executive committee has the responsibility to set the Party’s political programme and can also call for a general council meeting to discuss electoral results.
Saliba had already told MaltaToday that his party had no problems publishing a report to analyse the electoral defeat commissioned by the party but he would not divulge who would be writing the report.
In 1996, the PN leadership made it a point not only to call an executive committee meeting immediately but also pointed fingers at those they considered to be responsible for the ‘unexpected’ defeat at the polls.
The blame then fell foursquare on the Pieta administration and was shouldered by Austin Gatt who was then secretary general and his two senior aides. Ironically it catapulted Gatt into the parliamentary world where he continues to shine and is now considered as the most decisive of all the ministers.
Sceptics at l-Istamperija see the late Executive meeting as an attempt to cool the angst over the EP result and to avoid an immediate backlash against the present administration at the Pieta central office.
Meanwhile, the name of the former Prime Minister’s son, is making the rounds among PN activists. Some believe Beppe Fenech Adami should challenge Joe Saliba to become secretary general, a contest that many believe would be won with flying colours by the popular young lawyer.
Activists argue that such a change could also invigorate the PN central administration, which is described as being out of touch with the Party’s grassroots.
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