Two incidents occurred in the past weeks, which in different ways illustrate with graphic clarity that the race for Victor Scerri’s position – vacated when the incumbent resigned over an ODZ permit in Bahrija – has now begun in earnest.
The first was deputy Siggiewi mayor Karol Aquilina’s surprise motion, significantly presented on the day of Scerris’ resignation, requesting government not to renew the lease of a Labour Party clubhouse.
The second – altogether more transparent – was government whip David Agius’s act of volunteering to serve as ‘temporary’ PN president, until a permanent candidate is chosen by the party’s general council.
In both cases, there is more than just a hint of naked ambition – although to be fair, such traits are after all to be expected from young political activists, at a time when the party is still reeling from its crushing defeat at the polls last month.
Starting with Aquilina’s politically bold move, and it is clear that the 30-year-old Siggiewi councillor – rumoured to be well perceived among the party’s higher echelons, and possibly to enjoy the backing of Gonzi himself – is eyeing more than just a building for the purposes of hosting a daycare centre.
Questions pertaining to the timing of this council motion will arise as a matter of course. Why has Karol Aquilina elected himself to pass this controversial motion, and at this particular juncture in time?
The motion itself deals with the saga of public property leased out or requisitioned for party clubs: a sensitive and politically emotive subject for many people, not least the families who were dispossessed some 20 years ago by notorious government requisition orders under a Labour administration.
In this case, few will probably notice that the Siggiewi band club is an exception, in that it wasn’t actually requisitioned at all. But this is largely irrelevant: for many Nationalists in these trying times, any excuse for a fight with Labour is an excuse worth taking.
From this perspective, by inviting such a clash with the Labour Party in the thick of a July heatwave – seemingly shattering the peace of the political lull (as well as Labour’s deep, deep summer siesta) – Aquilina appears to confirm rumours of his own ambitions to climb up in the party structures.
This, coupled with his reluctance to comment on his reported bid for the PN presidency, naturally raises doubts as to the real reasons for a motion which some feel is a little unnecessary, given that government was highly unlikely to renew the lease anyway.
Besides, keen observers of the political scene are always quick to point out that picking a political fight is rudimentary for the politician seeking to establish himself. As the PN seeks to find its bearings, especially after the party’s drubbing in the European Parliament elections, the anger of PN activists publicly voiced in MaltaToday, the complaints by backbench MPs and former ministers who feel ostracised by the party… there are clearly elements within the party calling for a new blood that will revitalise the PN’s fortunes.
With Victor Scerri’s resignation, embarrassingly tied to yet another blunder by MEPA’s decision-makers, comes an opportunity for the brave to stick their necks out. So in steps Nationalist MP (and government whip) David Agius, making his own generous offer to temporarily fill in the position.
However, not all young activists are equally favoured by the party and its friends in the media: and unlike Aquilina, Agius’s ambitious proposal was ‘outed’ in a timely news report on PBS.
Aquilina’s ‘tactic’, if his council motion could be so defined, resonates with the party grassroots and puts him straight into the limelight as a councillor taking on an entire party’s legacy. The former Labour government’s brazen administration of public property during the 1970s and 1980s elicits that feverish kind of resentment that still haunts the PL to this very day.
If this is the sort of belligerence the PN will be looking for in its party figureheads, Aquilina – an aspiring MP – has certainly advertised himself well.
But by the same token, the situation also reveals the sheer level of animosity and opportunism that currently exists within the fractured Nationalist party. Evidently, the smell of blood is still thick in the air at the Stamperija in Pietà: now, it seems the young Turks are positioning themselves ahead of the battle to come.
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