PN Aren’t Facing Hard Times, Bernard Grech Insists: ‘Our Disappointment Must Become Our Driving Force’
Opposition Leader Bernard Grech denied that the Nationalist Party are facing hard times following their electoral defeat.
His answer was a response to a statement by Andrew Azzopardi, whose interview with Grech aired on Saturday.
“I do not agree that these are hard times for the Party,” Grech said. “Obviously the wish to perform better, or even win, was still there. However, I was able to accept the results serenely and maturely.”
“I understand that there are disappointments. Life is full of disappointments. But what we do with them, is what will either make us or break us.”
“We have to turn that feeling into the energy to drive us forward.”
Grech made it clear that his appointment as party leader was not going to be a miracle move to rejuvenate the party, insisting that he “did not have all the solutions.”
“Just because I’m here, it doesn’t mean everything will fall into place straight away.”
“A change of leadership does not mean a total change. Everyone has to do their part.”
Azzopardi raised another point in how Former Leader Simon Busuttil resigned following the loss of the 2017 general election and asked why Grech did not follow suit.
Grech responded by saying that he had urged Busuttil to reconsider his decision, that his first shot at the election was “like sitting for a five-hour exam and having the paper taken from him in the fourth hour.”
“I respected his decision even though I did not agree with it,” he said. “But because he [resigned], it doesn’t mine others should. I always insisted that our project was not a one-and-a-half-year project.”
“I feel as though we have done a lot. We continued to regenerate the party. We have twenty new faces in the group. I believe we can continue to improve the PN and regain its status as a popular party once again.”
Grech has been PN leader since October 2020, replacing Delia in what turned out to be a bitter battle between internal party rivals. However, he failed to improve the PN’s electoral performance in the general election, with the gap from the Labour Party now at 39,000 votes.
PN statute dictates that a leader must resign after every election defeat, but Grech has said that he intends to seek re-election.
Should Grech remain PN leader?