It will be a two-horse race for who will become the Nationalist Party’s next leader, as Adrian Delia and Alex Borg are the only candidates who have formally submitted an expression of interest to succeed Bernard Grech.

Potential candidates had until 2pm on Sunday to formally submit their expression of interest to be the next Nationalist Party leader.

Bernard Grech announced his shock resignation earlier this month amid election polls showing a downturn in support for the party – just 12 months after it seemed to have broken new ground by narrowing the margin to the Labour Party to just 8,454 votes in the European Parliament elections.

The anointed successor for a period seemed to be Roberta Metsola, who is currently the President of the European Parliament.  But despite pleas from almost everyone within the party – including Grech himself – Metsola chose to stick to Brussels for the rest of her term in the European Parliament’s top role, which ends in January 2027.

That decision then threw the cat among the pigeons – but polling showed that there were three main names being touted by supporters: Grech’s predecessor Adrian Delia, young Gozitan MP Alex Borg, and the outspoken former MP Franco Debono.

Delia and Borg are known to be particularly close, and early in the week it seemed like they had reached an agreement to not contest against each other – although it was not clear who of the two would contest for Grech’s soon-to-be vacant post.

Delia formally announced his bid on Monday, launching his bid for an unprecedented comeback to the party’s top post. Delia has already served as the party’s leader when he was elected to succeed Simon Busuttil in 2017 – but it proved to be a tumultuous three years characterised by internal bickering and upheaval which ultimately culminated in an open rebellion from his MPs.

He has said that he has evolved as a politician since then, and told The Malta Independent that there has been a “total turnaround and change of attitude” within the party since he was ousted as leader in 2020.

It seemed like Delia, who polled well among the PN members who will ultimately be voting, would be a shoe-in for the post – but a day later, Borg announced his own leadership bid, saying that the PN needed a generational change and a winning mentality.

The 29-year-old Gozitan lawyer who has been an MP since 2022 and is widely seen as having masterminded the PN’s upswing in support in Gozo said that the race would be one “between friends.”

There have been reports that Borg’s decision left a bitter taste in the mouth of those close to Delia – who had not been expecting Borg to run – but both the MPs have downplayed there being any rift, insisting rather that it was healthy for the party for there to be competition.

Sunday’s 2pm deadline for formal expressions of interest from would-be candidates came and went – and no other individuals joined the ranks.

Lawyer and former firebrand MP Franco Debono – who was polling in third place in surveys among PN members – said on Sunday morning that he would not be contesting, but pledged to consider taking up a more active role within the party after the leadership election.

PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut, who was also touted as a potential option to be party leader, told Times of Malta meanwhile that he too would not be contesting for family reasons and “for the sake of party unity.”

In a statement, the PN’s Chairperson of the PN Electoral, Records and Data Commission Mario Callus said that the details of the two candidates will be forwarded to the PN’s Candidates Commission, which will begin a due diligence procedure into both of them.

“This due diligence process may take up to a maximum of six weeks. Once concluded, the Candidates Commission will send its report to the PN Administrative Council and the Electoral Commission, along with a declaration stating whether the individuals who expressed their interest meet the verification criteria.”

“Subsequently, within three days, the Electoral Commission will officially open the nominations for this position for a period of five days. During this period, only those who would have expressed their interest and successfully passed the due diligence process may submit their nomination,” the statement read.

The PN is expected to have a new leader by the end of summer.