Bernard Grech has shuffled his cards too.

A week after Prime Minister Robert Abela removed a minister, appointed another, added two more parliamentary secretaries to extend his record-breaking Cabinet into more monstrous figures, and changed responsibilities of half of his team, the Opposition Leader carried out a similar exercise.

Unlike the government side, which is divided into Cabinet members and backbenchers, all Nationalist MPs have their own shadow portfolio to cover. The difference is that, whereas all ministers and parliamentary secretaries have big teams working for them, PN spokespersons have to battle it out single-handedly. It’s not an easy task.

This was not the first time that Grech chose to shift things around. In January 2023, he had carried out alterations to his squad, giving roles to three of his more experienced MPs – Mario de Marco, Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Chris Said – who had been left out of the shadow Cabinet he had appointed just after the election in 2022. All three had served as ministers in the Lawrence Gonzi administration which ended in 2013.

Grech’s more recent changes were not unexpected. Rumours that were filtering from Pieta indicated that Grech was also planning to tinker with his line-up. Once PM Abela made his choices, it was then the opportune time for Grech to make his.

The most important switch is that which concerns his predecessor. Adrian Delia was shifted from the transport portfolio to that of health. It was an almost natural change, although having a lawyer responsible for health is rather unorthodox. But Delia has been tackling the sector indirectly for years through the court case he had instituted, as Opposition Leader, and continued as an MP after he was ousted from the post, related to the three public hospitals which had been passed on to be run by the private sector.

A first court which had described the 2015 deal reached by the government, with Konrad Mizzi as Health Minister, as “fraudulent” had annulled the agreement and ordered that the three hospitals – St Luke’s, Karen Grech and Gozo General – are returned under the government wing. On appeal, the judgment was confirmed, with the courts speaking of “collusion”.

It was by far the biggest political win the PN achieved ever since it was relegated to the Opposition benches in 2013. The issue has escalated further with more legal action taken while the government struggles to contain the fall-out. There are more chapters still to be written before the story comes to an end.

Delia continues to be at the forefront in the legal battle the PN has instituted in an attempt to recover the funds the government handed over to the private companies – Vitals and Steward – which between them ran the hospitals for eight years. The PN claims the funds amount to €400 million, while the government insists that this is much less given that this figure includes the salaries that were paid to the workers.

Following Grech’s reshuffle, Delia’s responsibilities in the sector are no longer limited to the hospitals’ saga, but they have been extended to cover the whole health portfolio, except for primary health care and mental health, which are in the hands of Ian Vassallo.

Delia’s move triggered other changes: Joe Giglio was taken off home affairs to be given transport and infrastructure, with Darren Carabott replacing Giglio while retaining the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee. Stephen Spiteri, who held the health portfolio for many years, was moved to social policy while David Agius, who will be contesting for the EP election, is now responsible for European funds while remaining as Deputy Speaker.

Other significant changes involved Ryan Callus, who was given the energy portfolio previously held by Mark Anthony Sammut, who is now responsible for transport and mobility. Graham Bencini was promoted to shadow finance, with Jerome Caruana Cilia taking over the economy.

The changes were done as the Nationalist Party gears up towards the European Parliament and local council elections that will be held in June.

It will be a severe test for the PN, and although there is a huge difference between a general election and an EP/local council poll, the outcome will tell us whether the party has made inroads into Labour’s lead. The PL has won every time since it lost the 2008 general election by a whisker.

Grech has made the party’s intentions clear. In his speech last Sunday, he said that the target is for the party to elect a third representative on the European Parliament, a feat that the PN has only managed once from the three occasions when Malta had six members.

What he expects now is that these changes spur his MPs to go the extra mile in pushing the PN’s message.