Alex Borg stands one electoral vote of making Maltese political history.

A dashing young lawyer hailing from Gozo, Borg has risen through the Nationalist Party's ranks at breakneck speed - going from a prospective electoral candidate to a potential new party leader and Opposition leader in the space of just five years.

Many had telegraphed that Borg could one day lead the PN, and when Bernard Grech surprisingly resigned earlier this month, the speculation became even rifer. With a lead in early opinion polling, Borg decided to take the plunge and throw his hat into the ring.

Could Alex Borg be Malta's first millennial political party leader? What are the pros and cons? What would a PN, led by Borg, look like? The Malta Independent on Sunday finds out.

The backstory

To say that Alex Borg came onto the political scene from nowhere would not, in the strictest sense, be correct. He announced that he would be contesting the 2022 general election as far back as two years prior - but at the time people simply knew him as a young lawyer who was also into modelling.

But the young lawyer - then in his mid-20s - quickly rose through the party ranks: he was elected into the PN's youth wing in 2020, and then into the PN's Executive Committee the following year.

He was essentially the PN's best performing candidate in the 2022 general election - despite his lack of political experience; only PN leader Bernard Grech garnered more first count votes than Borg did.

But perhaps the fact that Borg took to politics like a duck takes to water shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. He comes from a family with a history of political involvement. His father was the late Tony Borg, a former PN mayor of the Gozitan village of Fontana and also the long-time chief of staff for PN heavyweight Giovanna Debono.

Borg counts Debono as a mentor to him, and it is well known that Debono - now long retired from the frontlines of politics - was, and still is, a strong supporter of Borg's political aspirations.

Since being elected, Borg has been the PN's shadow minister for Gozo. He has managed to steer clear of major controversy, though not without some transgressions, and is widely seen as being the mastermind behind the PN's recent uptick in support in Gozo.

Ever since becoming an MP he has been mooted as a potential PN leader of the future, and while perhaps some didn't expect the opportunity to come quite so soon - it's one that Borg could not resist taking on.

Alex Borg greeting outgoing Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech

The statistics

Born in 1995 and just 29 years of age, Borg would be the first millennial to lead any political party in Malta - let alone one of the two major ones. He would be the youngest Opposition leader in Malta's Parliamentary history by a long way should he be elected as PN leader.

He would also be the first Gozitan to lead one of the two major political parties - Malta has had Gozitan presidents in the form of Anton Buttigieg, Censu Tabone and now Myriam Spiteri Debono, but never a Gozitan Opposition leader or, for that matter, Prime Minister.

Borg is a lawyer by profession, which means that should he be elected he would continue a PN historic tradition: every single PN leader in history has been a lawyer, and that will not change with this leadership election irrespective of who wins.

The pros

What sets Alex Borg apart, first and foremost, is his age. Borg is young - he has a fresh and charismatic face with an undeniable charm, which no doubt is a part of his appeal to voters. That type of youthfulness is something that many have felt the PN has been sorely lacking in past years.

The PN has consistently been trying to send the message that it is on the path of renewal. The election of Michael Piccinino as the party's Secretary General at 26 years of age was a big signal of this, as was the trust in young electoral candidates such as Borg himself.

But what bigger way to signal a renewal would there be than to elect a millennial to be the party's leader? It's a prospect that the party's younger members may certainly back.

Beyond that though, Borg has also proven that he can win votes. His performance as a first-time candidate in the 2022 general election was nothing short of startling.

He and his team also masterminded significant gains by the PN in Gozo on a local council level, to the point that the PN was the best performing party on the island - beating the PL by 1,127 votes across all councils. That's no mean feat considering that the PN lost that election by 20,255 votes.

Even in more recent polls: in February, the PL led the PN in the polls by 12,000 votes - but the PN polled ahead of the PL in a Gozo-specific poll. By April, the PL's vote lead across the country had doubled, yet the PN was still marginally the preferred party on the sister island. In the June survey, which prompted Bernard Grech's resignation, the PL led the PN by 39,000 votes - yet the PN now held a whopping 19-point lead over the PL in Gozo.

These things don't come out of thin air: it's clear that Borg and his team know how to win votes.

What will also serve Borg in good stead is that he has managed to steer clear from any major political controversy. Yes, he has had run-ins with a few NGOs here and there and been criticised for some of his stances (more on that in a bit) - but in the grand scheme of things, he has not been the subject of any major scandal.

Alex Borg and his partner Sarah Bajada

The cons

What might be Borg's biggest pro for some, might also prove to be his biggest con for others. While some may perceive Borg being so young as an advantage - others may perceive him as being simply too young to be entrusted with such an important post.

Borg is competing against someone who has undeniably more experience: more political experience, more professional experience, and more life experience in general. Some party members will consider that alone a deal breaker.

While Borg may have not been involved in any major scandals, that does not mean that he has been immune to criticism - and one of the biggest critiques that is made of him is that he is perceived to be too close to construction developers.

This intensified especially based on how Borg handled the PN's stance on Fort Chambray. In June 2024, he and fellow PN MP Stanley Zammit voted together with the government in a parliamentary committee resolution to transfer the Fort Chambray concession.

Environment and heritage NGOs accused Borg of taking the side of big businesses and of misleading people into thinking that the new holders of the concession would be footing the bill for the restoration of the fort - when in actual fact it's the taxpayer who will foot the bill.

He eventually clarified the remark, but regardless Borg was reported to the Commissioner for Standards over this, and was found to have breached ethics. He refused to apologise for the breach - a point which may raise questions on whether he'd adhere to the principles of good governance.

On other occasions, he was accused by activist Wayne Flask of being close to Joseph Portelli - an assertion Borg has denied, saying he's barely ever spoken to the developer. Moviment Graffitti's Andre Callus, meanwhile, recently described him as "the parrot of developers".

With the construction, housing, and the environment among the hottest topics, Borg would have to prove that these perceptions of his closeness to developers are unfounded.

But perhaps the biggest hurdle Borg would have to face is that it seems that - perhaps much like the hurdle Adrian Delia had to face in 2017 - is that some elements within the PN simply don't really seem to like him all that much.

More so, these same elements are likening him to be a politician who would fit better with the Labour Party rather than within the Nationalist Party. A column in this newspaper by former PN candidate Kevin Cassar described Borg as "Labour's Trojan Horse", and while PN MPs clamoured to publicly condemn what was described as a "senseless attacking" - some other PN voters read, and, at least it seems, agreed.

Borg likes to say that he is straight talking - a man who gets to the point from the off; he might need to show a bit more nuance if the challenges he faces come from within.

What would a Borg leadership look like?

We can speculate what an Alex Borg leadership may look like based on his statements and positions of the last five years - and in some senses, it would be a break from what we are used to from the PN.

Perhaps the biggest break may be in how the party interacts with certain NGOs. In recent years, the PN has always implicitly backed plenty of causes fronted up by NGOs - be them related to good governance, rule of law or environment, among others.

But an Alex Borg leadership could put the party on a collision course with those same NGOs.

One of his first controversies - even before he was elected as an MP - saw him get into an online fistfight with Civil Society Network and Repubblika after the former suggested that a new party should replace the PN.

"Wholehearted condemnation to Civil Society Network and Repubblika," he said, associating Repubblika with the post. "I, PN candidate Alex Borg, completely disassociate myself from these entities whose main goal goes beyond the principles and values of our glorious party," he said, as he urged other PN members to do the same.

Two months ago Borg again said that the PN needs to disassociate itself from Repubblika, and said that the party's agenda should not be dictated by NGOs.

On a policy level, Borg could be a leader who steers the PN in a more conservative, rightward direction.

He clashed with his parliamentary colleagues a few months into this legislature when he voted against a new IVF law that would allow genetic testing before implantation. Only he and two other PN MPs - his competitor Adrian Delia, and Ivan Bartolo - voted against the bill.

He has consistently spoken about the need for better safety within communities in Gozo, and put that need down to growing "multiculturalism" - ergo, more foreigners - on the island.

When it comes to construction, Borg has said that the problem lies less so with developers but more so with a Planning Authority that is "bought out from top to bottom" and more so with a political class that has enabled "some" developers to abuse of the system. He has said that politicians need to back "developers of good will" and give them the "necessary tools to work for a better Malta and Gozo".

Most contentious and perhaps indicative though is that Borg counts himself as something of an admirer of US President Donald Trump. He had backed Trump in the run-up to the last US Presidential elections, and praised the businessman-turned-politician's "authenticity", that "you know where you stand with him", and said that Maltese politicians have a lot to learn from this.

Equally contentious was Borg's attendance at a conference organised in London by the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) - a group with strong right-wing associations - which attracted right-wing populists, climate change deniers, and known Donald Trump advocates.

Ideologically speaking though, Borg will tell you that any talk of right or left wing is talk of the past.

"Politics has become about the human value of people - about how to give people the potential to do their best, with respect towards society and the environment, something that isn't happening right now, and to ensure that no one is left behind," he had said in January 2024.

"There is nothing conservative or liberal in this, there is only common sense."

Next week: Adrian Delia and the PN leadership