Calls For PN To Split Into Two Parties Will Intensify After Next Election, Academic Predicts
Academic Mario Thomas Vassallo has predicted that calls for the Nationalist Party to split into two separate parties will intensify after next year’s general election.
“The PN is suffering from credibility issues and it’s not necessarily because there’s something wrong with their policies,” Vassallo said during a debate on ONE TV’s PaperScan this morning. “Their policies are good but they mean nothing if the people don’t believe they can actually put them into practice.”
“No kingdom that is split into two can ever get on its feet and the Nationalist Party is split ideologically. As I have publicly said before, I believe calls for the PN to split into two parties will intensify after the next election because the factions are irreconcilable.”
Vassallo called for the ‘Blue Heroes’, the PN MPs who turned against former leader Adrian Delia, to “wake up and save the party” and not adopt double standards between Delia and his successor Bernard Grech.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech
He also called for the emerging of ‘Red Heroes’, PL MPs who aren’t scared to publicly disassociate themselves from the party line on certain issues.
“Don’t be yes men all the time,” he urged them, asking how it could be that not a single PL MP spoke out against the proposed cannabis reform.
“PL exponents tell me one thing when the microphone is on and anther thing when it’s off. Could it be that none of these MPs have reservations on the bill? Don’t they speak to concerned people and grandmas? Who is representing them within the PL? You can pass the bill into law because you have a mandate to do so but it can’t be that everyone must follow the party line.”
He warned that it was precisely this attitude of acquiescence which brought Malta into a political crisis two years ago, which culminated in the fall of then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
“Muscat had to resign because huge governance mistakes were allowed to go by, with everyone just saying Yes Sir. You have the people’s support so you can afford to be honest.”
Vassallo gave his two cents in the wake of a Times of Malta survey which found that 56.5% of the electorate intend to vote for PL at the next election, compared with only 42.1% who intend to vote for PN.
Prime Minister Robert Abela also enjoys a huge trust rating advantage of 37.6 percentage points over Opposition Leader Bernard Grech.
The survey comes a few weeks after two other newspapers published similar survey findings, with MaltaToday estimating a gap of 13.5 percentage points between PL and PN, and It-Torċa placing it at 15 points.
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