Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1122313
12 maltatoday | MONDAY • 27 MAY 2019 EUROPE 2019 OPINION Saviour Balzan ON Sunday, Labour propagandist Ma- nuel Cuschieri posted on Facebook a message calling on all "brothers and sisters to be cautious about asking for PN leader Adrian Delia to leave… it is on our best interest that he stays on." Earlier on TVM, Labour consultant and former Nationalist mayor Rob- ert Musumeci typically attempted all tricks from the book to defend PN leader Adrian Delia – even though Musumeci describes himself as part of the Muscat movement. I can under- stand that he likes the guy considering that they were neighbours and that not so long ago, Musumeci was part of the big Nationalist family. Now it seems there are four families – the extensive and big Labour fam- ily, the angry family alienated from the PN that congregates under various banners of resistance, such as Occupy Justice, the Nationalist family… and all the rest. Cuschieri's sardonic request for Delia to stay on is of course far from an altru- istic one; like the Nationalists before him, he believes that Labour should govern forever and that the National- ists should sit in the opposition bench- es for the rest of their lives. I can understand the feeling. I find it very difficult to forget the malicious nature of many Nationalists, but I also recall the horrid politics of former La- bour governments. Today Labour's political vision, calm and serenity exists because of Joseph Muscat, though one never knows what tomorrow might bring. We all know that Adrian Delia will not manage to make the PN win. He will dig a bigger grave for the party, aided by the crass incompetence of secretary-general Clyde Puli and Pierre Portelli. Puli had the gall to say NET TV that the vast win for the Labour Party still augured well for the party's future. "Let's not forget that during this past year, surveys suggested that the PN might lose by 88,000 votes or 75,000 votes. This hasn't happened and the result is very similar to that of the last general election. The party will take lessons from this result because the people have spoken but after the PN's modest electoral campaign, the result showed that the PN has been consolidated," Puli said. Well, in the end it lost by 51,500 (at the time of going to print) – a stagger- ing and awful defeat that cannot be ad- dressed with the answer that "we need to accept this result with humility." This is not the time for humility but the start of people packing their bags. Puli will certainly have to be cred- ited for the banal and tired narrative on abortion and the xenophobic tirade against foreigners that Delia embraced in the campaign. It was not only a mis- take it was downright amateurish. And Delia made it his own. And to prove that those voters who did vote for the PN were not in synch with Delia's PN, Metsola and Casa will be probably elected, two MEPs who have used up precious time bludgeon- ing Malta and who think they should continue to do so in Brussels. And this after Delia's far-from-subtle choice for Europe, that is Frank Psaila and Peter Agius, who were given all the extra publicity, push and coverage by the party. Delia might think he has the gift of the gab but he cannot come to terms that he has been rejected as a politi- cian. He is failed political currency. And the MPs who complain about a party in disarray need to understand that if they do not act now, it will be too late. They are either in their par- ty for the glory or there to get things done. Someone needs to come out and spell it out, and call for a vote of confi- dence in Delia. But that saviour cannot come from the Busuttil camp, for that formula is doomed to fail. What is needed is a fresh face who can unite the factions and draw up a political story that will put the PN on the map. In my previous articles and opinions, months and years before, I would give suggestions of who could potentially be leadership material. I think that I would be misconstrued in doing this now. I do not believe that Malta 'deserves' not to have a Nationalist opposition. Or a Nationalist government. Like so many other people, I too voted for the PN in the past, when the Labour party was not an option. For the Labour party or government is not forever. This country needs checks and balances, alternative poli- tics to the dominant political wave that we are now experiencing, and a change in style and a vision for the future. It will not be easy, but what is? Adrian Delia and his very small cohort of ad- visers and apologists cannot offer this. > • < A small note on the small parties. And I am not referring to Norman Lowell, but the PD and AD. It is high time that one questions the relevance of these parties, especially if they choose to be a sidekick for MPs like Godfrey Farrugia, or remain unwilling to join forces. Have they realised that winning in politics requires some wisdom and compromise? My view is that they should disband and allow for a new political grouping to sprout and find its roots in Maltese society, a new political grouping that lies to the left of politics and is unwill- ing to compromise on its principles but ready to make popular alliances and seek new strategies to win public trust. The same applies to those politicians who appear as political candidates in some form or another and never quite make it. They too should read the writ- ing on the wall. If Delia doesn't pack his bags, he must be told to leave Delia might think he has the gift of the gab but he cannot come to terms that he has been rejected as a politician. He is failed political currency