PN council first step in returning party to ‘winning ways’ – Fenech Adami

"The road ahead might be long but I believe that the General Council is the first step in making the PN a winning party once again," PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said.

Addressing the opening day of the PN General Council, the deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami said "in a nutshell the PN lost the general election because it had been in power for too long and secondly, as a consequence the party was detached from the people."

The PN's General Council discussed the report analysing the PN's electoral defeat and Fenech Adami's address followed a number of interventions by PN councillors who shared their thoughts and ideas on the report and the party's future.

"Therefore, the starting point must be the courage to acknowledge the errors made and looking forward we must turn to people who were hurt, people who were not accepted, people who were not given their dues and their rights and acknowledge that we have let them down."

He added that the party not only hurt individuals but it alienated whole sectors of society, which could have easily been kept on board had the PN given young people the importance they deserved and recognised that young people who were not University students also had aspirations and needs.

The business community and the self-employed were also alienated by the PN government, Fenech Adami said, adding that the PN had created bureaucratic monsters such as MEPA and civil servents in a number of government entities who wilfully "sabotaged" the previous government.

"We must not blame others for our defeat, we only have ourselves to blame, including myself for letting the situation slip out of our hands. As from tomorrow we have to cease being the party that lost the election a few weeks ago and become the party that will win the next general election."

The new deputy leader added that the PN must remain a factory of ideas and noted that the party was in the process of meeting activists and supporters on a local level "to ensure the party is relevant in social, economic and cultural aspects at a local level."

He said that he was looking forward to working "hand in hand" with the party's sections, especially the youth section, MZPN, to address the needs and aspirations of the young people. The PN's pensioners section was also a vital cog, Fenech Adami said, predicting that the elderly, alongside the workers, would be the first "victims" of the Labour government.

Earlier, new PN Executive Council president, Ann Fenech gave a brief overview of the electoral defeat report drawn up by a commission which she led, describing the report as "the end of the healing process."

Reassuring the PN faithful that the PN had the ability to win the people's trust through various communication channels, she said: "We have to win over voters who were born and bred as PN supporters but this time voted Labour, we have to win over voters who joined the PN in the eighties and who felt part of the party but this time voted Labour. There are ways and means how we can go to every one of these voters," Fenech said.