During yesterday’s political debate between the contenders for the Nationalist Party’s leadership, Alex Borg gave a very well scripted delivery which was clearly written for him by someone who is highly experienced in Maltese politics and has been writing scripts and political discourses for most of his life. The author is definitely a man and I have my suspicions – he is of course a veteran and not someone new.
Most probably, Alex Borg doesn’t even understand many of the implications and the notions he was stating such as when he said that he wants to turn the Nationalist Party into a “futuristic party”. From someone who attends conferences of the loony right and has an abject admiration for Donald Trump, his calls for “futurism” immediately remind me of Mussolini’s face plastered on the façade of Palazzo Braschi in 1934. Alex Borg is as green as they come.
He seems to be aware of his mission of though: defeating the Labour Party, but the problem is that he is conflating his success in Gozo with the dynamics of the mainland. Alex Borg’s fascination with broken public land deals with the construction lobby are not as fascinating to the Maltese who unlike Gozitans, don’t have share the chronic and insular economic challenges of Gozitans. Alex Borg may have been a successful politician if he built the Gozo bridge (with a corruption scandal along the way), but becoming Prime Minister is a totally different matter. As a young individual, he is very much aware of the youth’s major challenges but he is clueless about the potential solutions.
Surely, he is being fed information and guided by some very experienced people. His words yesterday were clearly not his own. He also shows some expertise on media as he insists that the party’s media should scale down operational costs as it transfers more of its efforts online – this is also part of his plan to address the financial problems of the party.
With his inexperience, it is very difficult to trust Alex Borg as his own man – and this is also why it is even more important for Alex Borg to disclose his donors. Adrian Delia offers a more conservative and safe option. As Adrian Delia receives the backing of the European Parliament President herself, Adrian Delia gives a sense of stability and clear future guidance for the party.
On the other hand, Alex Borg seems to have disruptive potential—but not necessarily for the good—if he is being influenced by the construction lobby to the point of allowing it to extend its control over economic and planning policy. Yesterday he appealed to several specific groups, including Labourites, but did not mention environmentalists, with whom he has a very tense relationship.
These matters will be resolved and cleared, politically, very soon, most probably. Once again, yesterday’s debate evoked a renewed urge and desire for victory in PN and the Alex Borg-Adrian Delia combo seems to be successfully projecting itself as a serious contender for the government.
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