Bernard Grech First 100 Days: the surveys

Part thirteen

By now, that is, after the first 100 days, Dr Grech should have demonstrated his ability to absorb the culture and language of the Party. Whenever he has referred to his past experience, this came across as irrelevant, out of place and incongruous. Effectively, whenever this occurred, it always went down badly creating a backlash. What is not coming through to shareholders cum party members, is Dr Grech’s strategy and its justification. A detailed explanation as to how he intends to achieve his main goal is lacking. Obviously, the aim of any party is to win the next general election.

On January 10, we were provided with a survey that appeared to introduce a breath of fresh air to the Nationalist Party and to the leader personally. Now, a new survey has come out. The raw data in both surveys is the same. But the conclusions are diametrically opposed. What appear to be constant in the two surveys is that the popularity of the leader, Bernard Grech, is on rise. But here one needs to be careful. This kind of standing is not gospel truth. One must be wary of over-simplistic slogans and explanations. Surveys give an indication and whatever is said, believed or put forward (bearing in mind who is presenting it) yet they still remain an indication. The overriding indications are not positive for the PN. In other words, raw data can also be manipulated. The only conclusion that can be made that, unlike his predecessor, he is not getting spokes in the wheel from fellow MPs. This is helping his personal rating, as party leader.

What should have been avoided is the fact that the survey carried by Vince Marmara is used by the media of the party to affirm how good Bernard Grech is as was done with the one published by Malta Today. In fact, the day after Marmara published his survey, the media of the PN severely criticized it. This only brought confusion to people’s mind.

The Nationalist Party has been through this already. Dr Simon Busuttil had a totally different picture prior to 2017, yet the Party received its worst numerical beating ever. It is of little help that all Grech’s acolytes (mainly the klikka) are responsible, for they themselves don’t show an iota of humility and one has to remember that many of them were protagonists when the Party received its worst thrashing.