Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1178032
25 OPINION may have been (boo, hiss!) Adrian Delia… but the wreath itself was emblematic of the Nationalist Party as a whole. And the PN is more than just an embodiment of its current leader. Leaders come, and leaders go… but the history of a political party remains what it is regardless. All of which raises an inevitable question: if the PN's history is to be so summarily rejected… what will its future be like? Once these people have finished trampling what's left of the Nationalist Party underfoot, and kicking it to pieces as it lies prostrate on the floor… what do they plan to replace it with, when it is well and truly dead? Above all: who will this new Opposition movement (assuming there even is one at all) actually represent? For there is more than just the historical significance of the PN hanging in the balance here. What is also at stake is the precarious situation that Malta's entire Opposition – including, but not limited to, the PN – finds itself in today. Another image that is currently doing the rounds shows a comparative aerial view of the crowd which attended Wednesday's protest (estimated at around 3,000), and the much smaller crowd (around 600) that celebrated Independence this year in front of the Stamperija in Pieta'. This picture has been gleefully shared by people who seem to think that Wednesday's crowd somehow represents the 'true' PN… or at least, the only faction of that party that can still carry on its historical struggle against corruption and injustice. But if this is their perception… quite frankly, they must be bonkers. Just as the PN is more than just Adrian Delia… it is also a whole lot more than just 3,000 angry citizens who (let's face it) only have one point of convergence to unite them: Daphne Caruana Galizia. It would be difficult at the best of times to build a viable Opposition movement out of a single-issue lobby group; let alone when the single issue in question happens to take the form of a personality who… well, out of respect for the bereaved, let's just say Daphne Caruana Galizia was 'divisive', and leave it at that. And besides: 3,000 may indeed be quite a showing for any old civil society NGO; but it remains pitifully microscopic, for a full-blown Opposition party that intends to pose a real challenge to the behemoth that is Joseph Muscat's Labour. A better comparison would be with an aerial photograph of the Fosos at the height of one of Eddie Fenech Adami's mass meetings in the 80s. For if the intention really is for the PN to recover the energized support of those glorious years… then the real yardstick you have to measure up to is the PN of Eddie Fenech Adami's time… and not Adrian Delia's version today. Meanwhile, apart from numbers – which are kind of important, in an electoral equation – another thing Wednesday's crowd also lacks is the legitimacy of broad- church representation. The political party founded by Fortunato Mizzi in the late 19th century, and re-moulded by Eddie Fenech Adami in the 1970s, has historically represented a heck of a lot more than just one, rather small section of Malta's upper- middle class. The Nationalist Party of old also spoke to the poor and the disenfranchised; it offered economic models that would create jobs for the working class… in factories, in industrial estates, and in the sort of professions that the privileged minority would never dream of working in themselves. I need hardly add that the Labour Party takes even greater pride in its historic representation of those much larger, more widespread socio- economic denominations that some people still like to call 'hamalli'. Like the PN, Labour owes its origins to far more than any one 'single-issue' concern. And again, it is this history of social inclusion – and not Joseph Muscat himself, who, like all leaders, is 'here today, gone tomorrow' – that the Labour Party really draws its gargantuan strength from. So coming back to that wretched PN 'kuruna' we all saw kicked about on the ground last Wednesday… all of that, too, is present in the same image. Dione Borg was not the only Nationalist who took umbrage at the sight; thousands more would likewise have interpreted it as an elitist dismissal… not just of Adrian Delia, but also of themselves who support him: the ordinary, everyday Nationalists who weren't born into comfortably affluent families; who do not speak English as a first language, nor happen to live in the island's 'socially preferred' neighbourhoods. Despite their years and decades of faithful service to the PN… they, too, must have felt like they were being rejected out of hand, by what they probably perceive (rightly or wrongly… it doesn't really matter at this stage) as a bunch of spoilt, stuck-up snobs. Very little can be built on those foundations, you know. And certainly nothing that can ever aspire to replace what the PN once was, as a truly inclusive force for social change. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 OCTOBER 2019 To all those people, then – and not just to Dione Borg – the sight of that 'kuruna' being so peremptorily discarded, and kicked about like a piece of trash on the ground, was an ugly, painful reminder of just how far the PN has fallen since its 'Golden Age' Sunday, 20th October 2019 European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2014-2020 PRE – ANNOUNCEMENT Sub-Measure 1.1 – Support for vocational training and skills acquisition actions Sub-Measure 1.2 – Support for demonstration activities and information actions Sub-Measure 4.1 – Support for investments in agricultural holdings The Director General of the Funds and Programmes Division, within the Parliamentary Secretariat for European Funds and Social Dialogue is announcing the launch of sub-measures 1.1 and 1.2 of the Rural Development Programme for Malta, 2014 – 2020. Support under this measure shall cover vocational training and skills acquisition actions (sub-measure 1.1) and demonstration activities and information actions (sub-measure 1.2). Vocational training and skills acquisition actions may include training courses and workshop. Support is awarded to entities having the appropriate capacities in providing knowledge transfer and information services to eligible farmers. Farmers will be receiving these services free of charge. Support under this measure shall not include courses of instruction or training already forming part of normal education programmes or systems at secondary or higher levels. The indicative budgets for these sub-measures are €2.6 million (sub-measure 1.1) and €0.2 (sub- measure 1.2). Applications will be received as from October 2019. Further details on the application process, including dates, will be published on the Managing Authority's website www.eufunds.gov.mt. Managing Authority will also be organising an information session on these sub-measures. Those interested in attending the information session or require additional information on this measure may contact the Managing Authority on rdd.meae@gov.mt or 2200 1108. The Managing Authority would also like to announce that the final batch of applications under sub- Measure 4.1 will be received until the 30th April 2020. Unless otherwise notified, no applications will be received after this date.