Labour moves in quick to feast on PN incumbents’ departures

The general elections in Malta drew first blood on the first official day of the campaign, with nothing less than four established Nationalist MPs announcing they were withdrawing their candidatures.

Claudio Grech, Mario Galea, Clyde Puli, and Kristy Debono made the surprise announcement on Monday, a day after Prime Minister Robert Abela called the election.

That same evening, Labour billboards were put up depicting the PN headquarters, split right down the middle. The tagline: “They divided a party. Don’t let them divide the country.”

Claudio Grech will not contest the general election

It’s a slogan that plays right into Labour’s long-established ‘team Malta’ mantra, aided by its otherwise compact party support for Abela, and bolstered by the PN’s history of divisions.

Indeed, all MPs bar Grech were supporters of former leader Adrian Delia – who is contesting the eighth district – with Puli having served as secretary-general of the PN before resigning under the weight of internal party criticism directed at Delia.

Nationalist MPs Clyde Puli, Kristy Debono and Mario Galea will not contest

PN leader Bernard Grech has so far managed to soften the blow of the departures with a positive spin by selling the news as a regeneration of the party by MPs making way for new blood.

‘Those who split up a party should not be given a chance to split up the country’ – PL

The Labour Party said Bernard Grech is the face of the PN of the past and the face of those who have split up the party.

“Those who split up a party should not be given a chance to split up the country,” Labour whip Glenn Bedingfield said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Bedingfield said everyone knows Bernard Grech was put in office to force his predecessor, Adrian Delia, out.

“If Bernard Grech is elected Prime Minister, the internal squabbles within the PN will be taken to a national level. We would be jeapordising the political stability that is so important and that our country has achieved in recent years.”