Watch: Joe Giglio Doesn’t Intend To Contest PN Leadership And Confident Election Won’t Be A Landslide
New candidate Joe Giglio has said he has “absolutely no intention” of contesting the PN leadership in an internal election that will have to be called if his party loses the upcoming general election.
“I have absolutely no intention of contesting the PN leadership,” Giglio said when questioned by Lovin Malta during an interview yesterday. “My only intention right now is to keep on passing the message that the PN is a more viable alternative.”
As per recent amendments in the PN’s statute, the party must hold a leadership election after every general election it loses.
Although several surveys have predicted a major PL victory this weekend, Giglio said there is no talk whatsoever among PN activists of this upcoming internal election.
“People right now are simply focused and working exclusively to get the PN’s message across,” he said. “There’s a lot of news happening right now and we’re making a massive effort to ensure people hear our message.”
“I think this debate [on a leadership campaign] is absolutely premature; we should remain focused on Saturday and Sunday and then we can have this debate.”
Giglio added he remains confident that the PN will make significant gains on the PL this weekend.
“I don’t believe it will be a landslide for Labour,” he said.
“I hope beyond hope that after all we have gone through, with a journalist being murdered… should the PL win with the same majority after that? There have been some 150 scandals. Don’t you think our electorate will respond?”
He said the PN has made “a lot of progress” under Bernard Grech’s watch, citing a number of its manifesto proposals, such as the creation of ten new economic niches and the establishment of a living wage.
“We’ve already seen the PL take over ideas which the PN had proposed, like the emphasis on more open spaces and pedestrianised areas. You can contribute to change in so many ways.”
Grech has signaled he intends to remain in charge, even if the PN loses by a similar margin it had at the 2013 and 2017 election, stating in a Times of Malta interview that surveys were forecasting a defeat by some 70,000 – 80,000 votes before he took over and that the government is abusing public funds by sending out cheques a week before the election.
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