The Nationalist Party has opened a new chapter in its history.

After its election defeat in March, which was by far the biggest ever, it has embarked on a process to change its leadership.

Simon Busuttil was elected leader on 8 May and, last Saturday, after a hasty change in the party statute, the councillors elected Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami as the new deputy leaders. It is the first time in history that the party will have two deputy leaders.

The process continued with the election of the 13 members of the executive committee and will come to an end after the new secretary general of the party is elected in the first week of June.

Dr Busuttil, Dr de Marco and Dr Fenech Adami – three lawyers in their 40s and all having attended St Aloysius College – have formed a triumvirate that has set itself the task of rebuilding the Nationalist Party and taking it to the next election in the hope that the PN will return to government.

It will be a tough task, and the three of them have no difficulty in admitting it. Yet, it is the near impossibility of the mission that is likely to make things easier.

The PN lost the last election by 35,000 votes. Nobody expected the PN to lose by so much. And nobody now expects the margin to increase in the next election.

Still, all three have publicly said that they will do their best to take the PN to victory next time round. They know that they have nothing more to lose now, as even a defeat by half the 2013 margin will be considered as an achievement.

Since his election, Dr Busuttil has spoken about a leadership team, rather than a leader. He has spoken about Team PN, which is clear signal that his intentions are to involve his two deputies and others in the running of the party.

After the election defeat, the pessimism within the walls of the Dar Centrali at Pieta was sky-high. But, as they say, time heals, and the changes that have been made and will continue to be made will bring about a new kind of enthusiasm at the different levels of the party.

Today, the situation at the PN HQ is much clearer than it was two months ago. The party fell flat on its face after the election, and is now picking itself up.

But only time will tell whether the leadership decisions that have been taken by the councillors were the right medicine that the party needed.