Bernard Grech’s fate as PN leader to be decided as process starts

Apr 7 2022

The Nationalist Party has kicked off the process towards convening a general council, which will confirm if Bernard Grech will retain his position as party leader after the general election loss.

The party statute demands that following a general election, the party members must be given a chance to vote on whether or not to confirm the leader in office. That process started with a meeting of the party’s administrative council on Wednesday night.

A meeting will be held by the party executive, which sources claim will be delayed until the party’s parliamentary group is completed. The party still needs to elect 13 new MPs.

Seven of them will bee elected through the casual election on Tuesday, and will have to add six MPs through the gender balance mechanism. General election candidates are allowed to contest in two voting districts but must drop their seat in one.

Party sources said once the PN’s parliamentary group is complete, an election will determine who of the 13 MPs sitting on the executive committee have a vote. Following a statue change in 2020, the PN will only have on deputy leader. Robert Arrigo, who held this position, said this week that he will not seek election to any post within the party once the term expires.

Th other deputy leader, David Agius, who is responsible for parliamentary affairs, has not indicated if he will seek re-election. Arrigo had also tweeted out ‘Please help us Roberta’ when Bernard Grech announced that he will still contest PN leadership.

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PN should decide whether to split in two new Labour MP says

Apr 7 2022

New Labour MP and CEO Randolph Debattista has brought up the idea of the Nationalist Party splitting up into two two parties which, despite having a distinct identity, would form political alliances.

Speaking on ONE TV’s Pjazza, Debattista said that the party could go for the German model of the CDU/DSU, which sees two camps of the party – one geared towards a more liberal wing of the conservatives and the other representing the more old-guard conservative fashion. ‘They must decide what they’re going to do someday’ he said.

The outlined how he believes that the biggest problem faced by the party is that it is composed of two factions who do not want to have anything to do with each other. ‘It’s not an issue of them not liking each other or of hatred but an issue of differences in belief.’

He went on say that this is what differentiates the PN from the PL, and went on to advise the opposition to reflect back on the internal report carried out after the 2013 election as ‘nothing changed since then.’

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Rosianne Cutajar, Omar Farrugia and Glenn Bedingfield among casually elected

Apr 7 2022

Rosianne Cutajar, Omar Farrugia and Glenn Bedingfield have just been elected this morning through the casual election which occurred in the Naxxar counting halls.

Cutajar was elected on the sixth electoral district after the Labour Party executive decided to give up Minister Ian Borg’s parliamentary seat after he was elected on two districts. Malcolm Paul Agius Galea, Sean Apap Meli, Fiona Borg, Joseph Cutjaar, Katya De Giovanni and Omar Farrugia also contested nomination on this district.

In total, 38 nominations were submitted by Labour Party candidates to fill up the remaining 8 seats. Glenn Bedingfield managed to secure the seat on the second district.

Meanwhile, Omar Farrugia was also elected on the fifth electoral district. Raymond Abela was elected on the Third District, Katya De Giovanni on the Fourth district.

Malcolm Paul Agius was elected on the seventh district, followed by Rebecca Buttigieg on the ninth district and Romilda Baldacchino Zarb on the 11th district.

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WATCH: Pope Francis stopped Pope mobile to greet children in Gozo

Apr 7 2022

It’s already been a couple of days since Pope Francis made his voyage to Malta for a two day visit. Despite that, cute moments like this are still surfacing on the internet.

In the video, the Pope could be seen stopping his Pope Mobile to greet children in Gozo, signalling at them to run out and meet him.

Little kids took the chance to meet the Church leader as he interacted with them through his iconic white vehicle as people looked on from the sidelines and cheered him on.

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The visit was highly anticipated by the Maltese public and its Catholic and Christian communities. The Pope met the President and the Prime Minister’s family as well as migrants in the Peace Lab.

His final mass at the Granaries in Floriana attracted upwards of 12,000 people, with international journalists making their way to Malta just to broadcast the event. The Pope appealed to the Maltese to treat those outcasted by society and migrants as they once did St Paul.

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