De Marco’s post-mortem spells out aspirant’s vision for the PN

Nationalist MP Mario de Marco has delivered a post-mortem of the Nationalist Party election campaign that laid out a leadership-aspirant's vision for the party.

In an article published in the Times yesterday, de Marco did not mince words, holding up the electoral campaign that saw the PN losing to Labour by a landslide of 36,000 votes on Sunday as an example of "how not to run a campaign".

Among his observations and insights into how the party's shortcomings came together to deliver a defeat of historic proportions, de Marco's chief diagnosis was that the PN's campaign lacked vision for the future.

He said that while Labour extolled its own hopes and aspirations, the Nationalist Party failed to do likewise. "What vision did we offer in return?"

In this, de Marco touched upon a sore spot for the Nationalist Party by insisting that the party was mistaken in assuming that its past achievements were all that was required to assure victory.

De Marco similarly recognised and disavowed politics by character assassinations and personal attacks, personified by Nationalist pundit Daphne Caruana Galizia.

"The electorate does not relish negative campaigning directed at the person rather than the message. Society expects higher standards from politicians, not only in the way we do politics but also in the way we talk politics," he argued.

De Marco's sobering commentary comes when the Nationalist Party is reeling from a staggering defeat and is in the midst of the painful transition from government to the opposition benches.

But the wheels are already turning in anticipation for the impending leadership contest that must take place within three months' time.

Nationalist leader Lawrence Gonzi's announcement that he will not seek reconfirmation opened up a gulf that several PN exponents seem to be only too keen to fill, and de Marco's analysis suggests that he has his eyes firmly set on the prize.

"At the same time as carrying out our duties in Opposition, we must rebuild our party, rebuild its structures, rebuild its credibility and rebuild its bridges," he said.

"A defeat of this magnitude cannot be the result of one factor," de Marco said. "It is the sum total of many things gone wrong ... it is also perhaps the result of our party ignoring the signs on the wall for too long."

Specifically, de Marco pointed to the PN's failure to gain the trust of younger generations, its tarnished and outdated 'image', and its loss of support of sections of the business community and middle-income earners.

De Marco also acknowledged the PN's stilted and often hostile stance towards "independent media" in the run-up of the campaign, and said that because its own party media "spoke almost exclusively to the party faithful", the PN's voice was lost on "traditional media" and "often drowned out in the social media and internet sites".

In an allusion to the PN's anti-divorce campaign, and Gonzi's own decision to vote against the divorce bill in parliament, de Marco said the PN also "failed to adapt to the changing nature of Maltese society as we struggled to bring together the liberal and conservative elements of the party".

"Our attempt at reaching out to the gay community was evidently not convincing enough," he said, noting the party's lukewarm stance towards LGBT issues like same-sex partnerships.

Looking forward, de Marco said that a new PN administration needs to dissect and abandon an "election campaign strategy which failed to capture the imagination of the electorate," insisting that the issue went beyond resources.

"We then need to develop and communicate a vision, a vision based on legitimate people's expectations," de Marco said.

"This is how we can address the gap between the parties. It is not an easy task but one which we can and will carry out," he said. "We need to move these five years forward together."

PN leadership debate begins on Facebook

By Monday, the social media networks were murmuring about possible candidates for the PN leadership.

Several names started doing the rounds on Facebook, as PN faithful start looking towards a unifying figure to lead the party towards renewal: the oft-mentioned names were, unsurprisingly, Mario de Marco and Chris Said, and deputy leader Simon Busuttil.

At the same time, other names are also cropping up, among them those of Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami, son of iconic former PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami, and lawyer Ann Fenech, who was part of the PN electoral commission for the election of deputy leader.

By Monday afternoon, a Facebook page titled 'Nazzjonalisti Biss' had already posed the fateful question: 'Who would you like to see as the new Nationalist Party leader?'

Leading the 'chart' after four hours of 'voting' at 7.30pm yesterday was Mario de Marco with over 1,320 votes, followed by Beppe Fenech Adami (653), Simon Busuttil (373), 'other candidates' (227), and Chris Said (117).

In comments to the media, de Marco and Fenech Adami were both circumspect about their intentions, neither discounting nor confirming their intentions to throw their hat in the ring.