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MALTATODAY 25 August 2019

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17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 AUGUST 2019 INTERVIEW Nationalists elsewhere. There could have been 101 reasons for them not to vote National- ist this time round. It could be that they are still hurt by ac- tions taken by the last Nation- alist legislature: people who had problems with MEPA, for instance. Or hunters and trappers. Never mind that the Labour government deceived them too; at the moment, hunters and trappers still feel they were deceived by the PN. So the sort of reasons I am given, when I meet with con- stituents in my own district, are very different from what you hear in places like Sliema, for instance. So I cannot attrib- ute the same reason across the board. Still, we have to – and this is something I have sug- gested internally – find a dif- ferent electoral base as well. Delia is very likeable to a cer- tain segment of the population, which is not necessarily 'Na- tionalist'. So we have to accept the fact that there is a segment – small as it may be – which will never vote for Adrian De- lia; but there is another, much larger segment which the party should start focusing on. I'm talking about the Pale Red vote…. I can see the strategic sense in that; but what it also means is that the PN would be telling those 'pale blue' former voters that it is simply no longer interested in representing them. Is that the case? No, not at all. What I'm say- ing is that we have to consoli- date as much as we can of the blue vote: whether it's 'pale' or not. Because most Nationalist voters, across the board, are pale blue anyway... in the sense that it is easy for them to shift their vote. But the point is, if there are a couple of thousand who – and we have to recog- nise this – will not vote for the Nationalist Party at the next election… we cannot afford not to replace those few with a different support-base. There is an entire segment of pale red voters out there, to whom we can reach out. I believe we should; in fact, I believe in this strategy so much, that yester- day I asked Adrian Delia to consider assigning my shad- owing duties to someone else, so that I can concentrate on working on the ground in the southern districts to maximise the party's share of votes... pos- sibly winning for the first time hundreds of pale red voters. This raises the question of how the PN can appeal to the pale red vote, when it has alienated moderate voters (of all hues) so much. Delia has been PN leader for two years now; and on the so- called 'progressive issues', he has been no different from Lawrence Gonzi or Eddie Fenech Adami before him. How, then, can the same Delia suddenly reverse everything he said in the past two years, in order to convince traditionally Labour voters to vote PN? It's not like that; and I'll tell you why. The party, with its liberal policies, has alienated a section of its own voter-base… Sorry to interrupt… but did you say 'liberal policies'? Yes. I think we disappointed some of our voter-base by be- ing lax on the civil unions is- sue, for instance. Whatever reforms the party has to go through, it cannot divest it- self of that part of its identity that is Christian Democrat. It doesn't mean you don't move forward. But you can't forget where you're coming from… You're referring to Simon Busuttil's shift on the issue of gay rights as a mistake… Not a 'mistake', no. But it did alienate a segment of our vot- ers. We can't deny that. I can confirm it myself, from the feedback I get from constitu- ents. But just a second ago, you were talking about the need to reach out to pale red voters. Now, you seem to be reaching out to the arch- conservative, 'deep blue' disgruntled Nationalists instead... The Nationalist Party needs to adopt a balanced approach. And the balance takes the form of people contributing with their different ideas. But the first thing we have to do is remove hatred from Maltese politics. This is what Adrian Delia has been try- ing to do from the outset… You yourself have been the target of political hate campaigns; and like Delia, the criticism levelled at you comes from people who used to vote Nationalist. This has been going on for two years… and it seems to be intensifying, rather than diminishing. How, exactly, do you 'remove hatred from Maltese politics', under such circumstances? As for the criticism levelled at myself: I can only say, 'if you can't handle the heat, your place is not in the kitchen'. I accept all criticism, whichever form it takes. But there is a culture of hatred here; and it has existed for a long time. We have to fight it. How? We just have to be patient, and try to convince people that the Adri- an Delia project is the right one for the party and country, at this time. That will continue to be my mission. If you ask some of those who were at the fore- front in the recent confirma- tion election… I spoke to them; I sent them messages… all be- fore the result was known. I told them, 'This party is yours. Let's see how best to contrib- ute, because we all have the Nationalist Party at heart…' You say that 'you all have the PN at heart'… but which PN? Do those people really believe in a party led by Adrian Delia? And does Delia himself really have a vision for the party… or is it more about his own short-term political survival, at all costs? First of all, there is only a small segment, which is very vociferous, which does not ac- cept Adrian Delia as leader. But we have to be realistic here. What's the alternative? Who told those people that, if Adrian Delia were to step down, there wouldn't be an even bigger fac- tion who'd say… 'Hey, we had a democratically-elected party leader, and you didn't even give him a chance. So we won't be voting PN again'? This is what I hear from voters in the south, where I live, every day. And besides: who told those people that all those Nation- alists who supported Delia – who voted for him, and who genuinely like him – would all simply accept the new leader who took his place, without even giving him a chance? And this is my concern. Adri- an Delia is a personal friend of mine: he is my party leader; I like him; and all that. But much more than that, I love my party. So, with hand on heart, I can say that… if we are going to remove this democratically- elected leader of ours… what will become of our democratic credentials? That is the mes- sage I would like to get across, if I can. Even to those who may be against Adrian Delia – who don't like him, for whatever reason, but still love the Na- tionalist Party. Not voting PN will make the party weaker; so whoever comes in after Delia, when his time is up, will inherit an even more fractured party. Is this what we want, us Na- tionalists? Or do we want a stronger party, that can chal- lenge the government of the day? The only way to strength- en the Nationalist Party, is to get behind the only legitimate leader we have. That, I think, is the way forward. new electoral base

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