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2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 JULY 2020 Cases 686 Local 599 Active 12 Recoveries 665 Deaths 9 Swabs 118,925 LATEST COVID-19 www.maltatoday.com.mt/covid19 NEWS Delivery fee of just €1 per day for orders up to 5 newspapers per address To subscribe 1. Email us your choice of newspapers, recipient's name, address, contact number to production@ millermalta.com 2. Forward cheques payabale to Miller Dis- tributors Ltd to address: Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1814 Queries on other news- papers and magazines, contact production@millermal- ta.com maltatoday Same-day delivery of your favourite Sunday newspaper Monday-Friday MaltaToday Midweek • €1 BusinessToday • €1.50 Sunday MaltaToday • €1.95 ILLUM • €1.25 Support your favourite newspaper with a subscription https://bit.ly/2X9csmr MATTHEW VELLA THE lawyer Bernard Grech (pictured) has emerged as a possible contender for the leadership of the Nationalist Party. Grech told 103.FM, the Church-owned ra- dio station, that he had been taking advice on a possible campaign earlier on to run in the forthcoming general election. "I had decided back in January, declaring it publicly, that I would be ready to serve if the party called… I had been asked to run for MEP by Adrian Delia himself. In January I said I would contest the general election. Now we are heading on a democratic path towards a possible party leadership contest, and I have to decide what I will do then." Although a known pundit in the PN's me- dia atelier and on TVM's Xarabank, Grech is not an MP and could well be an interesting prospect in a leadership race that is already looking crowded. Grech said that he was ready to be "the party's janitor" if it served the PN's interest, indicating that he could contest the party leadership if he felt it would help the PN serve the country better. "I never excluded anything… does the country need me? At this moment in time, I think there is some- one who can bring unity, a certain attitude, a certain mentality to the table. But everyone has to unite behind this person." Grech said the PN needed someone like Eddie Fenech Adami, the prime minister who took Malta into the EU, who can unite all people inside the party. "When you can put all the various voices into one choir, that's when the PN can unite and be strong. Fenech Adami did this. You cannot win an election just with 'PN votes'. The PN can win with the votes of all those who truly recog- nise it as a party that has the country's best interests at heart." Grech described Labour as "a party of cap- italists" that was ignoring small businesses and other families hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grech, a one-time campaigner against the legislation of divorce in Malta, acknowl- edged the split inside the PN but insisted that the factionalism hailed from within the party grassroots rather than a reflection of the divided parliamentary group. "The groups inside the PN are reflecting what the grassroots are saying… we are there to be the peoples' voice – not just inside the par- liament – but also inside the party. The in- ternal split is a result of what the people out there bring to the table." Unhappy with the theory, the Newsbook interviewer – Fr Joe Borg – brought out the abortion wild card, blithely asking: "But if people tell you they 'want abortion' do you go and do just that?" Skirting a facile rejection of the issue, Grech instead told the priest: "We're talking about principles, and abortion is one such principle that has to be discussed. If people say they 'want abortion', you are obliged to discuss it. You don't just decide, or let others decide for you; however, you are obliged to discuss it – and issue a position on what peo- ple think… Back in the day the Church felt it had the key to the truth. Out there, people think it differently: we have to recognise that reality." The Nationalist Party has been wracked with party in-fighting after a split inside the parliamentary group that has been unhap- py with Adrian Delia's leadership ever since his election in 2017. In the last weeks, Delia suffered two motions of no-confidence, first among MPs – who attempted to get Ther- ese Comodini Cachia installed as Opposition leader, unsuccessfully; then inside the party's executive committee. The conciliatory Grech showed himself adept at doing media, praising Delia's "hu- mility" in agreeing to a compromise motion inside the party's national executive, to put the fate of his leadership in the hands of the General Council. "He has chosen the demo- cratic path: he wants the councillors to de- cide whether to ask members to vote on a confidence vote, or to launch a leadership election." The PN's councillors – delegates from all PN organs, district and local branches, MPs and party officials – now have to de- cide whether they should either ask paid-up members to vote on a motion of confidence in Delia alone; or kick-start a leadership election right away for members to vote on. Delia has said that he will be contesting such a leadership race should councillors decide. Bernard Grech could be PN's dark horse in leadership race CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But so are some very familiar names whose campaign teams are revving up for a go at the leadership: they include MEP Roberta Metsola, the president of the PN's executive com- mittee Alex Perici Calascione, himself one of the leadership contenders in 2017, and the Gudja local councillor and for- mer president of the PN exec- utive, Mark Anthony Sammut. An interesting addition will be the lawyer and media pun- dit Bernard Grech, who had already rated highly in a Mal- taToday survey on possible replacements for Delia. Tech- nically the only 'outsider' in a field of party officials and MPs, Grech's candidature could be the one to watch. It remains unclear whether Delia's former leadership rival Chris Said, who led the parlia- mentary no-confidence motion against the PN leader, and MP Claudio Grech are committed to entering the race. What is sure is that it will be overshad- owed by Adrian Delia himself, who has confirmed he will run for re-election should the Gen- eral Council kick off the race. Yesterday Delia urged party councillors to vote in a forth- coming General Council that will either call on paid-up par- ty members to vote in a confi- dence motion in him, or kick off a new leadership election. "If we work together and pull the same rope, we can arrive at offering an alternative govern- ment for our country." Delia urged supporters to "show the strong heart and soul" of the PN. "Our party members are the essence, the heart and soul of the party. The party is not the clubs or the headquarters, those are part of the organisation of the party. The party is the 'tesserati'," De- lia said on NET FM. "The parliamentary group made a declaration, but this is not binding. I have always said that the issues affecting the parliamentary group should be dealt with by the parliamenta- ry group… but when it comes to the leadership of the PN we must go to our tesserati. The statute is not there to be stretched and twisted, but to be observed."