The Labour Party does have debt in its name, but is in a solid financial position with more assets than liabilities, the Labour Party's new CEO Ivan Falzon told The Malta Independent on Sunday in an interview.

Falzon has been in the post for two weeks now, and while he is no stranger to the role of CEO - he has served as the CEO of Mater Dei Hospital, the Water Services Corporation, Infrastructure Malta, and the Gozo Regional Development Authority - this time it is in the vestige of party politics, rather than at government-level.

But once the opportunity came, Falzon felt that he could not turn it down. 

"I didn't really have a choice.  I feel like I was obliged to give something back to this party which has given me so much and has given me a great deal of satisfaction," he says.

"It's also a matter of pride: If I think about my mother - if she were still alive, she would be in heaven seeing her son accepting to become the CEO of the Labour Party.  So it was something where I felt I had no choice, and so I accepted with humility," he adds.

The role of a CEO in party politics is mainly an administrative one - the Labour Party has a leader and a President over and above a CEO - and Falzon says that his main challenge is to make sure that the PL can function on its own.

"The party should, in a way, have a life that is separate from the government.  When the party becomes too integrated with the government, history shows us that once it loses power, then it falls into weakness," Falzon says.

"My main challenge is precisely that: to ensure that the Labour Party has the strength to stand on its own; that it continues to remain relevant; and that it continues to come forward with proposals so that it continues to earn - and re-earn - the people's trust," he continues.

Falzon is someone who knows the party.  He explains that he's been officially involved for over 25 years, and for even longer in an unofficial capacity.  His involvement was primarily on the electoral side - working with the numbers - but he continued that he has used the past two weeks to meet with as broad a spectrum of people within the party as possible, so that he can "better understand what they see in the party."

Falzon adds that he also had a mistaken assumption as he entered the role: "I thought I would be coming into a party that was drained and tired from an electoral campaign, and looking forward for a summer break.  Instead, the party's workers, contributors and volunteers have almost overwhelmed me with their energy to get things done.  This is something I've felt in these first two weeks - and I had expected the opposite."

Election: PL lost 5,000 voters last May

Asked for his interpretation on the general election result, Falzon said that it is a historic result, but also shows a PN that may be recovering votes that it had lost.

"There is also the natural cycle of being in government: while you are in government, you tend to lose some votes. That is where we need to analyse exactly what is happening,"he says.

However, he continues that he believes that the PL has performed a "miracle" under extraordinary circumstanecs which include the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the current global instability.

"Our job is to analyse what went well, and there is a lot to build on.  But there are people who, between 2022 and 2026 - around 5,000 - chose not to place their trust in any party.  They had been voting for the PL, but this time opted not to," he says.

He says that some of these voters gravitated to smaller parties, but the matter must be analysed, and the party must reach out to these people to understand what led them to make that choice. 

"Our challenge will be to convince them to return to their natural home."

The party's power, he says, is when it is a movement of many. 

"The party's formula has been to create an environment where the principles - that of being progressive, of challenging the status quo, and of standing up for the most vulnerable - are rigid, but the details are negotiable," he says.

"Can you please everyone? No, and that is the challenge of governing," he continues.

Ultimately, Falzon says, it boils down to a statement that the late Lorenzo Vella made - a statement which he has had framed in his new office:  "The Labour Party has to work so that every day we become a better version of ourselves."

PL finances: party has positive equity

Much is said about the financial situation of political parties - particularly of the PL's counterpart, the Nationalist Party, which has gone through well-publicised and much-discussed financial difficulties.

But what is the PL's financial situation?

"Fortunately, my predecessors left me a party with a solid financial foundation, but there are challenges," Falzon says.

There are, however, opportunities as well, Falzon says, adding that the party has assets and resources that it can maximise. "If we are creative, we can strengthen the party even more by putting it on a more solid financial footing," he says.

Beyond that, though, Falzon highlights the amount of people who express their love for the PL through financial donations and through the sheer amount of hours that they dedicate to the party.

"Today we need to look at the evidence and we need to look at the real challenges that exist out there. To gather this evidence, to carry out studies, to develop policies, you need significant resources - and we cannot do that without the contributions of many people - not just financial, but also in terms of the hours that our members and volunteers give us," he says.

"One of my main responsibilities, even when people ask me about the fifth victory, is that, no, I think the greatest responsibility I feel burdened with is the operational sustainability of this party," he says.

Falzon reiterates that his priority is that the party can stand on its own irrespective of whether it is in government or not. "Being in government should be a bonus, and should mean that we can implement what we want to implement - ergo the manifesto with which we win the election," he says.

Is the party in debt, however?

"I would be lying if I told you that the party has no debts, but the PL has positive equity - strong positive equity," Falzon says in response to this question, though he does not provide an exact figure.

Positive equity means that the value of the party's assets exceeds the value of its liabilities, be they with banks or with other creditors.

Affecting the balance sheet is the fact that 2026 was an election year - which means that the party's expenses increase significantly, Falzon says.  He explains that the party's operational expenses usually come in at around €1.5 million - but they roughly double during an election year.

Falzon says that the process for the party's accounts to be audited and submitted to regulators such as the Electoral Commission and to its members began last week

One area where the party has had shortcomings is with the company which runs its media wing, One Productions Ltd: the company has not filed any accounts with the Malta Business Registry since 2010.

Asked about this and about when they will be filed, Falzon says that he does not have the full information at hand as he will be meeting the leadership at the media wing in the coming weeks.

He adds, however, that "was a priority for my predecessors, and it is something that we need to address."

"The same transparency that we want to show as a party also applies to our subsidiary entities," he says.

A part of the financing question when it comes to political parties is on whether the State should enter the equation, by offering state funding to political parties.

Asked what his stance on this is, Falzon says that what needs to be ensured first and foremost "is that political parties do not become a burden on taxpayers."  However, he said, it needs to be ensured that parties are not in a situation where they are weakened or unable to fulfill their role due to a lack of resources.

He says that the discussion on party financing is a matter of time, but warns that it would be wrong to depart from the premise that "a political party can do as it pleases and then simply turn to taxpayers to foot the bill."

"If a political party is not capable of being operationally sustainable, alright, then that's where we need to take a closer look. That's where transparency comes in. You have to demonstrate that your party is not going to be a burden on government, but rather that it will contribute to the country," he says.

Falzon says that he doesn't feel like there should be "one large umbrella of state funding covering all party operations", but rather that parties should receive assistance to carry out research and to therefore develop evidence-based policies.

Renewal: 'Workforce's rebels will keep the government's work relevant'

A week or so after the general election, Falzon posted on social media that "it is time for the new, young guns to be given their opportunity" and the PL government needs to renew itself, and that the best time to do that is from a position of strength.

Asked about that remark, Falzon says that people may have seen him in many different roles and felt that he had an understanding of everything, but the truth is actually that "in every role, in every entity where I worked, I met new professionals with phenomenal energy and very good ideas, to the point where I was almost taking the credit for their ideas."

"I think the time has come for these people to be elevated, to start becoming visible and to gain that experience," he says.

Falzon says that the main thing to look for is energy.  "You can see leaders as they join the workforce because they try to change the status quo from the very first day," he says.

"Those rebels, I think, are the ones who will continue to keep the government's work relevant to challenges as they arise," he says.

"These people, who have studied, analysed and gained experience, understand today's realities and today's challenges much better than I do. I'm 48 now, but that's the reality," he adds.

The role of CEO is generally an administrative one - but will Falzon be getting involved in the party's policy-making regardless?

"What do you think?" - is the reply back to that question. When suggested that he couldn't resist it, Falzon replies with a chuckle and a smile:  "You answered your own question."