Many things went badly for the Nationalist Party last weekend.
It succumbed to its heaviest electoral defeat since Independence, which was the unenviable third negative record in the last six years. Being surpassed by 42,000 votes when the turnout for the EP election was the lowest ever makes the drubbing relatively bigger.
It lost a seat on the European Parliament benches, as the Labour Party elected four representatives to Brussels to the PN’s two.
The fact that traditional Nationalist strongholds, such as the ninth and 10th district, saw a huge drop in voter participation is also a significant sign that the PN, as it stands today, is not attractive to its habitual supporters.
As expected, this has led to calls for change and for Adrian Delia to examine his position.
But there’s another important message that did not come with the numbers.
The fewer than 100,000 Nationalist voters who turned up at the polling booths chose two candidates that are not seen, to put it mildly, to be close to the Adrian Delia leadership.
The election of Roberta Metsola and David Casa can be taken as yet another sign of the great division that exists within the Nationalist Party ranks. This is further confirmed by the subtle and not-so-subtle comments made on the social media by PN exponents who are known to be part of the anti-Delia section of the party.
They seem to be enjoying their party’s debacle and continue to throw fuel to the metaphorical burning flames at Pieta’. Saying that the Casa-Metsola election is a two-finger salute to the PN leadership exposes where their real loyalty lies.
Former Labour MP Deborah Schembri has summed it up nicely, saying that Casa and Metsola were elected “on the PN ticket but actually belong to a PN which is not currently in power”.
Simon Busuttil, the former leader, may be ruing the day he decided to push forward the idea that the party chief should be elected by the members, and not simply by the general council. The PN would probably have avoided the huge internal turmoil it has gone through for the past two years if Busuttil’s successor was selected by the council, and not by the members.
The way Metsola and Casa worked in the European Parliament has been heavily criticised by Labour, whose vision is always to protect Malta’s interests and reputation first and foremost; something which, in (not only) Labour’s eyes the two PN MEPs discarded.
That Casa’s first public appearance after the election was to put flowers at the Great Siege Monument, which has been used as a makeshift memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia, is an indication that he will continue on the same path as the past five years. Let us not forget that the anti-Delia faction is mostly made up of people who are known to be part of Daphne’s followers.
That Casa and Metsola, then, missed a meeting called for the elected MEPs by the President of the Republic, George Vella, because they had urgent matters to attend to in Brussels is not a good sign. It shows lack of respect to the country’s highest institution.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, in his first message after the election, said the PL was willing to work with Metsola and Casa if they, in return, are willing to work with the PL. It does not appear that Muscat’s message has been heeded.
There’s more.
The EP election has also brought with it the resignation of a PN MP, David Stellini, who was unsuccessful in his attempt to be elected as an MEP but has nonetheless chosen to leave the House of Representatives and return to his previous job in Brussels.
This has, again, sparked an internal fight between the pro-Delia and anti-Delia factions in the PN, with the former wanting Jean-Pierre Debono as a replacement while the latter insist it should be Kevin Cutajar.
As if there wasn’t already enough internal bickering.