Pressure mounts on PN secretary over ‘worst result in 40 years’

"If opinion polls are anything to go by, the Government is presently lagging behind the opposition by around 13 percentage points. The local council elections, a good poll in themselves, appear to confirm this unenviable position with the PN losing more than 11,000 votes. I do not remember such a disaster for the PN in the last 40 years..."

So states Dr Frank Portelli, a former Nationalist MP and president of the party executive, in reaction to the results of Saturday's election.

"No one assumed responsibility for this electoral defeat - not even the party secretary," the typically outspoken Portelli continues, in an undisguised barb at Paul Borg Olivier, who has occupied the post of secretary-general since 2008.

"Comments from prominent individuals claiming that the PN will continue to govern for another 20 years did not help the PN," Portelli added, with reference to widely reported quotes by Transport Minister Austin Gatt. "These comments may have been interpreted as bravado by some; or they can be interpreted as arrogance bred from having been in power for a quarter of a century."

Portelli is not alone in questioning the apparent failure of the party in government to assume responsibility for the extent of the defeat, which - though widely predicted - still managed to take the PN by surprise.

MEP Simon Busuttil, recently appointed as the party's 'special delegate' to re-establish links with civil society, described the result as '"nothing short of an electoral meltdown".

 "I take this to be an ultimatum. Unless we get it right in the next 12 months, we are heading for a certain electoral defeat," he said on Monday.

Franco Debono, the maverick MP who has been an outspoken critic of the present government from within its own ranks, likewise pointed towards Borg Olivier when apportioning blame for the result.

"It is clear I have been representing the sentiment of thousands of PN voters nationwide and especially in my district," Debono said, after pointing out that Alexis Callus (a relative of the prime minister, who had circulated a petition calling for Debono's resignation) failed to get elected in Safi.

"Where is Paul Borg Olivier now?" he asked.

Elsewhere, Debono hinted at widespread discontent with Borg Olivier at PN grassroots level. In an online spat with Wayne Hewitt - former secretary of the defunct Azzjoni Nazzjonali, now a fervent supporter of PN leader - Debono wrote: "Redirect your criticism to Paul Borg Olivier, as many thousands of PN supporters are doing."

Efforts to contact Paul Borg Olivier by phone and email for his reaction proved futile yesterday.

Read more in the MaltaToday Midweek digital edition with more from James Debono and his analysis of the local council election results.