Alex Borg: The Final Nail in the PN Coffin

The Nationalist Party’s fifth leader in 12 years won’t save them—he’ll seal their defeat.

Today, Nationalist members chose yet another leader—Alex Borg—marking the PN’s fifth leadership change in just twelve years. That churn isn’t renewal; it’s a death spiral. And Borg isn’t the break from the past the PN is pretending to sell—he’s the final nail in the coffin.

For months, the PN machine told its members a fairytale: that a fresh face would repair the fractures, win back trust, and finally threaten Labour at the polls. Reality says otherwise. A party that has burned through leaders like used matches cannot be “fixed” by changing the name on the door. The problem is structural: a hollow organisation controlled by the same establishment, the same cliques, the same bitterness. Borg inherits that rot—and he can’t cure it.

Inside Pietà, the knives never went back into their sheaths. The Delia faction and the “establishment” still loathe each other, the media satellites can’t agree on the script, and the rank and file are exhausted. Borg’s “unity” will last not longer than the next poll. Then the backbiting returns, the leaks resume, and the PN’s circular firing squad gets back to work.

Strategically, nothing changes. The PN has no credible programme, no social base outside its shrinking echo chamber, and no message beyond anti-Labour resentment. Borg can posture, pose, and record a few slick videos—but he can’t answer the basic question Maltese families ask: what will you do, concretely, that Labour isn’t already doing better?

Elections are won with coalitions, not cliques. Labour built one; the PN shattered theirs. Borg’s rise doesn’t expand the PN; it narrows it. He will energise the same online warriors, the same bitter commentators, the same elites who insult working-class Labour voters as “ħamalli”—and he will repel everyone else.

Make no mistake: the next general election is already written. Under Borg, the PN will march toward another massive defeat—louder perhaps, but smaller. He isn’t a saviour. He’s the undertaker.