It was not a surprise that some Nationalist MPs withdrew their candidacy for the upcoming election. The internal strife that the PN continues to face did not subside with the change of leadership.

One has to make a distinction between the decision taken by Mario Galea, Kristy Debono and Clyde Puli, and that of Claudio Grech. The latter has been clamouring for the need for the PN to put forward fresh names in its line-up to make it more electable. He stepped aside while still pledging to remain close to the PN, and has been responsible for drawing up the election manifesto.

The other three MPs were considered to be in the Adrian Delia faction when the party was undergoing its ordeal in the summer of 2020, which ultimately led to the election of Bernard Grech as party leader.

That they chose to announce their withdrawal on the first day of the election campaign may have been interpreted, at best, as bad timing or, at worst, an attempt to destabilise the party. After all, there were other MPs who chose a less awkward time to announce they will not be contesting, such as Herman Schiavone and Therese Comodini Cachia.

Bernard Grech says that he did not kick anyone out, but there is no doubt that the withdrawal of these three MPs does leave a vacuum in the districts they used to contest.

It also serves to portray the image of a party that is still not united, and in fact the Labour Party was quick to pounce on this, saying that a divided party should not be given the reins of the country because it will end up dividing the country too. Well, the country has been divided for decades – since Independence, one can say – and there is no need for anything else to happen to confirm this.

Another observation that could be made is that whereas Galea and Puli have been in Parliament respectively for 30 and 19 years, both Debono and Claudio Grech have been in Parliament since 2013, and did not form part of the Nationalist governments before that day. They were never part of a PN Cabinet.

So they were still politically young, so to speak, and it is therefore a contradiction to say that their resignation is to make way for new blood, when both Debono and Grech are part of that new blood. It is even more contradictory considering that there are PN MPs who have been in Parliament for much longer, even before the turn of the century, and yet are still part of the PN line-up.

These did have a seat on the Cabinet, were part of the PN team that was thrown out in 2013 and yet still believe that they have something to offer.

When he was speaking to The Malta Independent newsroom during a visit to our offices, Bernard Grech said that it is after all up to the public to make its choices, and that if the public chooses veterans, then he has to duty to work with them.

It was a not-so-subtle message that it is in the hands of the voters. A leader’s hands are tied with the decisions made by the people.