Young PN Councillor Launches Urgent Appeal to Bring Youths Into Party After Talented Fresh Faces Emerge In Robert Abela’s Cabinet
A young Nationalist Party councillor has launched an urgent appeal for the party to bring fresh, young, talented people into the fold after a wave of new faces flooded Malta’s cabinet.
“People we meet during home visits and party councillors alike have made it clear that we need to see more new faces and people,” Qormi councillor and minority leader Jerome Caruana Cilia said. “People want new voices and fresh ideas, the results of the local council prove this.”
The PN has been in the grips of an identity crisis ever since losing power in 2013, losing election after election by record margins. Current surveys don’t make positive reading for the PN’s future, with close to two-thirds of people believing there is no opposition in the country. Meanwhile, according to a recent Broadcasting Authority survey, NET TV didn’t register a single viewer between the ages of 12 and 20 last November.
Former PN member Norman Vella has also weighed in, saying that the Labour Party has faith in the politics of youth, unlike the PN.
“To further make matters worse the only new people mentioned are close to fifty years old or more!” he wrote, in what appeared to be a reference to Joe Giglio and Bernard Grech, who several PN supporters have called to take a more active role within the party.
“If we keep going on like this, the RIPN that Chris Fearne didn’t manage to implement will end up getting carried out by the Nationalist Party itself!”
Caruana Cilia and Vella spoke out after newly-elected Prime Minister Robert Abela appointed one of the youngest cabinets in recent history, with an average age of 46.5 and several Ministers who are still in their 30s.
It’s an impressive feat for a party to dump some key figures in the previous administration and immediately replace them with fresh talent determined to leave their mark.
The same cannot be said for the PN, who still rely on old school politicians like Louis Galea to lead them through reform, while young blood like Mark Anthony Sammut and many others remains on the fringes of the party.
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