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CONTACT Adriana Farrugia or Erika Arrigo on 21382741 for sponsorship opportunities maltatoday NEWS two steps back time', and David Thake's demotion from environment spokesperson following critical declarations on the Mi- zieb land grab. This suggests a strategic thinking dictated by the need to recover the party's strength in districts where the par- ty trails Labour by a large margin. But in the absence of a coherent vision and inspiring faces, such overtures simply reinforce the splits in the PN, eroding inroads by the PN among environmentalists and nature lovers. In short, compromises on hunting dictated by realpo- litik may be acceptable even for a majority of PN voters who oppose it, but only where the PN can offer hope on other major aspects of policy like land use, social welfare and economic direction. And yet, it remains unclear whether Grech can offer a new deal for ordinary people in matters like wages, investment and housing. Without such major policy planks, issues like hunting risk eroding the party's ap- peal within its own urban heartlands. In short, the PN needs to convey a vision of change and propose a viable team attractive enough to keep voters on opposite sides of culture wars on hunting and civil liberties, on board. For a coalition that can house a diversity of ideologies and mind-frames, the PN needs a glue which renders these differences irrelevant to the main task at hand: that of giving the country a prospect of an alternative government. Without that glue, the PN is likely to be consumed by these culture wars instead of attracting people from op- posite sides of these divides as Labour manages to do. Declarations by Edwin Vassallo describing equal mar- riage as "inhuman" days after the party reshuffle, was yet another throwback testing Grech's ability to keep liberals and conservatives on board. Grech may either choose to do what Muscat did in opposition, where he left arch-conservative Adrian Vassallo gasping for air as he rolled out his civil liberties agenda before 2013; or decide to do nothing and not to rock the boat. With- out new policies and new people, people are even more likely to associate the PN with Vassallo's bizarre decla- rations. Claudio to the rescue In a sign that Grech is aware his party's greatest short- coming is the absence of a coherent vision, his most sig- nificant decision was the appointment of MP Claudio Grech – a tech-savvy social conservative who previously shadowed the health and economy portfolios – in a new role in his party, becoming responsible for policy trans- formation inside the PN. In terms of organisational skills Grech remains one of the party's best assets. But the upcoming policy renewal also depends on widening the party's talent pool beyond the limited expertise of the parliamentary group. Ultimately people vote for other people, not abstrac- tions and policies. Come next election, the elector- ate will be comparing potential Nationalist ministers against their respective counterparts in government. And while the latter may be showing the first signs of arrogance and a fair share of incompetence, the PN re- mains a long way from presenting the better team. A reputation for competence is no guarantee for integ- rity, good governance and fairness. But the PN cannot aspire to win if it is perceived as a mediocre alternative to Labour. And the only way to change that is through electing a new crop of MPs. Failure to regenerate the parliamentary group with a near-certain defeat in the next election, will even endan- ger the prospect of a PN victory in 2027.