Two weeks on from Labour’s fourth consecutive election victory, Opposition Leader Alex Borg sat down with Lovin Malta to take stock of the result and map out what comes next for the PN.Defeat, but not disasterBorg doesn’t sugarcoat the result but he’s not about to wave a white flag either. The PN gained over 13,000 votes compared to 2022, cut the gap in half, and posted an average swing of around 6% across all districts. Gozo swung closest to 10%.His read on why Robert Abela called the election a year early? The momentum the PN had built in just a few months answers that question on its own. “What would have happened if the election had been held at the end of the legislature?”The two things voters are asking forWhen asked what the way forward is for the PN, Borg says the post-election feedback has been clear on two fronts: the party needs to be better organised, and its MPs need to be visible year-round, not just when canvassing.“Restructuring is coming,” Borg explains.He goes on to say that once the parliamentary group is confirmed, he plans to introduce clear expectations for MPs to stay present in their communities. “Summer is approaching. There will be village feasts. Our MPs need to be there on the ground. Not when election is approaching. We have to start now.”“The fact that people are telling us they want the PN to be closer to them gives me encouragement, because it means they still want us. If people weren’t saying anything, that would be more worrying.”The Gozo questionOn retaining his Gozo seat while vacating the 12th District, Borg pushes back on the word “loophole.” He had an official interpretation from the President of the General Council, who is the guardian of the party statute, confirming that as party leader he was entitled to choose which district to relinquish.The numbers back up why he chose Gozo. He received a record of over 12,000 first-count votes there, the biggest swing anywhere in Malta and Gozo coming on the back of a campaign against multiple sitting ministers. But beyond the figures, he says it came down to a promise he had made. He had repeatedly told Gozitans that the island would be one of his priorities, and walking away from that seat afterwards simply wasn’t something he was willing to do. “After repeatedly telling Gozitans that Gozo would be one of my priorities, I didn’t want to turn around afterwards and tell them that I wasn’t going to keep the district.”The question of who actually won Gozo is more complicated than it first appears. Labour took more seats on the night, but the PN outpolled them on first-count votes by around 144. It’s a distinction Borg is keen to preserve: “Go to the Electoral Commission’s figures. They clearly show that the PN obtained more votes than Labour.”Thanks to Malta’s constitutional corrective mechanism, which adjusts representation to better reflect the popular vote, Gozo has now ended up with four PN MPs and three Labour. Through the gender corrective mechanism, Gozitan Norma Camilleri has also been elected to Parliament. Borg insists that while Labour may have won more seats on the raw count, the final composition of Gozo’s parliamentary representation tells an entirely different story.Civil rights and the Conrad questionConrad Borg Manché was one of the PN’s standout stories of this election. A PL-turned-PN candidate, with an environmental activism background, who entered Parliament with a strong result and quickly built a significant public profile.In a recent interview, the MP stated that he didn’t see the importance of Pride, suggesting that members of the LGBTQ+ community had already achieved the equality they were seeking. He also said children should not be exposed to drag performances and similar elements featured in Pride parades. The comments landed like a grenade, and the question of where the PN stands on civil rights was suddenly back at the centre of the conversation.Borg’s response is to defend his MP while being clear about his own position. He points out that Conrad gave a clarification the following day, and argues that others, particularly the Labour Party, deliberately twisted what was said to turn it into a political weapon. “Just months ago he was being treated as a hero by the Labour Party, and now, because he chose to join the Nationalist Party and entered Parliament with a strong result, all these attacks have been launched against him.” He frames the controversy as a coordinated attack rather than a legitimate question about the party’s direction, and warns that this kind of thing drives young people away from politics.On his own position, Borg says he has attended every Pride event held in Malta and Gozo and that the PN’s electoral programme on civil rights was strong enough to earn praise from Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer.When pressed on whether having prominent members say very different things to the leader sends mixed messages, Borg holds his line: the programme is clear, his own record is clear, and the clarification Conrad gave resolved the matter. Whether that answer fully satisfies is likely to depend on who’s asking.On Euthanasia: A father, a diagnosis, and six extra yearsQuestioned on euthanasia, Borg explains his own personal opposition to the matter. His father was given six months to live after a cancer diagnosis. At the last minute, he found a hospital in London willing to operate with 50/50 odds and survived. He went on to live another six years.“Imagine if, during those six months, he had been given the option of euthanasia.” He might have taken it. And Borg would have lost six years with his father.He’s careful to call it a personal position, not party doctrine, and notes that Labour’s planned referendum will put the decision in the hands of the Maltese people regardless.With regards to the matter of abortion, Alex says, “We’ve been clear from the jump on this – we’re a Christian Democratic party and we stand firmly against it.”What’s nextBorg has already announced he’ll be seeking confirmation as PN leader. Anyone else can put their name forward. If they do, it goes to a membership vote; if not, before the General Council.His warning to himself and the party is worth noting: “The worst thing we could do would be to take this result for granted and assume that we’ll win the next election. We need to start working for the next election from today.”Watch the full Lovin meets interview with Alex Borg on Lovin Malta’s Facebook or YouTube. •