Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545285
Conrad Borg Manche: 'People thirst for politicians like me' Newly elected Nationalist MP Conrad Borg Manche sits down with Karl Azzopardi to discuss his new political home and its election performance, recognising people's challenges, and his views on queer realities 4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JUNE 2026 INTERVIEW NEWLY-ELECTED Nationalist MP Conrad Borg Manche at- tributes his success in the elec- tion to a style of politics that recognises people's challenges and fights what is bad. A late newcomer on the PN's ticket, Borg Manche's candi- dature was announced after the campaign kicked off. But despite the late entry, he was elected on two districts—the 5 District where he obtained 2,453 first-count votes and the 10 District, where he scored 2,411 first-count votes. He was the second-most popular Na- tionalist candidate on both dis- tricts. A former Labour mayor in Gżira, Borg Manche speaks on how he felt side-lined by his former party for speaking about issues affecting his locality, and laments a lack of reforms in the family court. An outspoken conservative, Borg Manche tells me he is personally against voluntary assisted euthanasia, and be- lieves the PN, as a conservative party, should also be against it. He is unequivocal on his stand against abortion. On whether he fears being seen as an outsider by National- ists because of his Labour past, Borg Manche said he made a gradual transition. "I wanted to see if I had the people's backing first. I contest- ed as an independent in the 2024 MEP election, and I managed to get 6,000 votes at a national lev- el, and that to me showed good backing from the people," he said. "But everybody knows the reality of being an independent in this country, and there is only so much you can do." On the 22,000-vote gap be- tween the two major parties, Borg Manche keeps his feet on the ground, but insists the PN has made big gains in Alex Borg's short tenure as leader. He says he wants Borg to stay on.