[LISTEN] Fenech’s ‘tried and tested’ PN versus Busuttil’s ‘bridge of trust’

Finance minister Tonio Fenech has played down aspirations to go for the leadership of the Nationalist Party if the party is defeated at the polls in the next general election.

Speaking on Radju Malta, Fenech said his hope was to be elected deputy leader to ensure Lawrence Gonzi is re-elected next prime minister, describing him as the "brand and image" of the PN's electoral campaign.

"We have a common mission: to convince Nationalist voters and those still mulling over who to vote for, that the best choice for the country is still the Nationalist Party under the leadership of Lawrence Gonzi," the finance minister said.

Fenech faces Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil [interview carried below] in a contest for the post of PN deputy leader after the vacancy created by the nomination of Tonio Borg for European Commissioner.

Describing Gonzi as a "selfless leader", Fenech said the prime minister had faced numerous challenges internationally, locally and internally and that he deserved people's support and trust to keep governing Malta in the future.

"Were I really looking into a bid for the party leadership, I would have taken the advice of those who suggested that I do not burn myself out in this contest," Fenech said.

He steered clear of drawing any comparisons between him and Busuttil, saying it was up to councillors to make that choice.

"I'm not going to be making any revolution inside the party within these next four or five months... our battleship will be geared towards the general election, and I'm not thinking of painting this ship's interior," Fenech said, pointing out that he hoped to see a party in the future that takes less of a cue from government and is more forthcoming in own-initiative proposals.

Fenech extolled the PN's ability to renew itself, saying the present Cabinet was from a new generation that despite its 25-year tenure, was a government that had changed its Cabinet four times.

On the other hand, Fenech said Labour leader Joseph Muscat may be young but his lack of experience in government meant he had to be "propped up by the experience of people that this electorate has already refused in the past," referring to former ministers in Labour's current crop.

Fenech said the PN's "tried and tested" track record in government would give people a clear choice: "They know where we stand, and they trust us on jobs and the economy, even though our internal problems weakened the perception of our stability... but when the time comes, they will ask what Joseph Muscat is offering and what experience the people around him have."

Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil similarly downplayed any ambitions for the party's top post, insisting that his focus as deputy leader would be to fight the coming electoral campaign shoulder to shoulder with Lawrence Gonzi.

"If elected my post will be up for re-election after the general election... so this role should go to that person whom the councillors literally feel will help the party win the general election and address the gap between the two parties," Busuttil said of the 12-point gap separating the PN from the ascendant Labour Party.

"My focus is not on creating some internal earthquake... but on the electoral campaign because this country still needs a Nationalist government to stay on the road it is on."

Busuttil set much store in portraying himself as a politician whom people trusted, first as head of the Malta-EU Information Centre and then as an MEP since 2004.

"I am offering my experience and energy to pass on the trust I enjoy to the PN, and bring back those thousands of voters who are thinking of voting for Labour.

"In these eight year as MEP I continued to strengthen this bridge of trust I have with voters, and inside the European Parliament I was there for Nationalist and Labour voters and for those who do not belong to any party."

Busuttil however said that while he stood by the party's ban on the candidature of Nationalist MPs Franco Debono, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett, he would still retain a bridge of communication with the MPs.

"I don't think we should vilify anybody," Busuttil said, saying the MPs had not been banned from the party, but from the party ticket for having voted against the directives of the government whip.

"If you cross a red line, you shoulder that responsibility. But we also have to keep a bridge of communication even with [independent MP] Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, whose vote this government still rests upon," Busuttil said of Gonzi's fragile one-seat majority.

In his interview with Radju Malta's Andrew Azzopardi, the MEP also portrayed himself as a centrist, a moderate, and a balanced politician who believed in the "power of reason" to construct political positions.

Author of an updated 'values manifesto' the PN had dubbed Fehmiet Bazici back in 1986, Busuttil said the PN updated itself to a 21^st century party in the wake of a bitter divorce referendum in 2011.

"The PN is a Christian-democratic party, whose political action is inspired by the principals and values of the Church's teachings. And I am proud of this, but we are not a confessional party - we are not a party of the church."