PN exploring co-option possibility for Alex Perici Calascione

The Nationalist Party leadership is exploring the possibility of co-opting deputy leader Alex Perici Calascione to the House of Representatives, should no runner-up candidate submit contest the 10th District casual election.

The casual election will be held to fill the seat vacated by the death of Nationalist Party MP Robert Arrigo.

The PN has three candidates who were not elected – St Julian’s Mayor Albert Buttigieg, former MP Karl Gouder and newcomer Emma Portelli Bonnici.

MaltaToday is reliably informed that PN secretary-general Michael Piccinino will be exploring the possibility of Perici Calascione’s co-option, with discussion with the possible candidates.

Arrigo’s baton could easily go to the St Julian’s mayor, who was the last PN candidate to be eliminated from the electoral race, although everything depends on how votes are transferred.

Karl Gouder is a former Nationalist MP who previously also served on the St Julian’s local council, while serving the party’s media structures in recent years.

The lawyer Emma Portelli Bonnici, a liberal candidate whose pro-choice views broke with tradition at the PN, is running her own legal firm. She had complained after the 2022 election that the party had “made no space” for her and that she had decided to distance herself from certain party decisions.

Albert Buttigieg was involved in a tiff with the party’s leadership earlier this year when he claimed that his electoral bid was obstructed internally at the whims of a ‘fat cat’ with business interests in St Julian’s.

Buttigieg never mentioned any names. An internal party ethics probe concluded that the party should offer potential whistleblowers greater protection to encourage them to substantiate their claims. It also recommended a revolving doors policy afer former Bernard Grech aide, Ray Bezzina, joined the DB Group just after stepping down from his party role.

Bezzina had himself asked for the ethics probe following Buttigieg’s claims since many understood that the PN official who conspired with the ‘fat cat’ was a reference to him. Bezzina had denied the claims.

In last March’s general election, Arrigo was elected from the 9th and 10th districts. He gave up the 9th District seat in line with the PN’s internal policy regulating dual candidacy MPs. He retained the seat on the Sliema district where he scored more first count votes.

Arrigo died on Tuesday morning with many paying tribute to a man who was not only an MP but also a successful tourism sector entrepreneur and strongly involved in the Sliema community.

This is the second time within the space of five years that a parliamentary seat was vacated as a result of death. In October 2017, PN MP Frederick Azzopardi had passed away at the age of 71, necessitating a casual election in Gozo.