Malta’s new Members of Parliament are set to convene for the first time tomorrow. And the first important decision on the agenda, the approval of the speaker of the House, is being seen as a first test for Opposition Leader Alex Borg.

The PN’s image during the electoral campaign was a highly controlled one, however, behind the party’s polished campaign facade lay a political reality as starkly different as a face stripped of heavy stage makeup.

The PN’s extremist faction, that stood silent throughout the campaign, seems to now be reinvigorated and is not only attacking the freshly nominated speaker, but also seems to have regained control of the PN’s media arms that are once again following the dictum of this faction.

But Alex Borg’s job is more difficult than just pleasing this group of extremist people that were also instrumental in his rapid ascend to party leader.

There are other factions within the PN, strongly bolstered by a very good personal showing of their main exponents at the election, and these have very different ideas.

Borg knows well enough that a certain position may not be grounded in conviction itself, but is more likely to be motivated by political maneuvers that are only intended to make his leadership a tumultuous one.

The price of a broken promise is a heavy one to pay.

The electorate is rightfully experiencing fatigue with these machinations and Malta is crying for an Opposition that is functional, and that focuses on its constitutional role in keeping the Government in check.

The People are exhausted of seeing a party entangled in deep internal fighting, something that, in conjunction with very heavy internal debts, is impeding it from properly representing the tens of thousands that voted for it.

What do our readers think? What will be the outcome of the PN’s first test?  Do the GonziPN figures that are engineering the structure of the Nationalist Party have a determining bearing on this, will it be the more extremist faction, or the one that supports a different leader?