PN Showdown: Alex Borg vs Adrian Delia – Malta Decides Its Next Leader

Ballot boxes across Malta and Gozo shut at 8 p.m. sharp, but the buzz in village band clubs, parish squares and family WhatsApp groups is only getting louder. Tonight, the Nationalist Party chooses between two battle-scarred warriors: Alex Borg, the fresh-faced lawyer from Rabat who promises “a new page,” and Adrian Delia, the firebrand ex-leader from Siġġiewi determined to reclaim the throne he lost in 2020. The outcome will not merely redraw internal PN lines; it will ripple through every festa committee, farmers’ co-op and Gozitan ferry queue before next June’s European elections.

In Dingli, 72-year-old Ġanna Micallef locked her front door at 7:45 p.m. to squeeze in a last-minute vote at the party club just metres from her son’s rabbit farm. “I voted for Borg,” she told Hot Malta, clutching her voting card like a prized festa raffle ticket. “Adrian had his chance, and while I respect his fight against Keith Schembri, we need someone who doesn’t scare the moderates away.” Down the hill, the band club’s jukebox belted out ‘Marija l-Immakulata’ while teenagers scrolled TikTok videos dissecting Delia’s fiery debate performance on TVM’s Xtra.

The choice is freighted with Maltese nuance. Delia’s core support lies in the hardline pockets of Birkirkara and Żebbuġ, villages where the Catholic torch processions still feel like medieval pageants and where “immigrants on boats” can empty a bar in seconds. Borg, meanwhile, has seduced Sliema millennials sipping flat whites at Café du Brazil and Gozitan eco-tourism operators who fear a PN stuck in the past will gift Labour another decade. The tension was palpable this afternoon outside the PN headquarters in Pietà, where a Delia supporter waved a homemade sign reading “Kemm se tħalluna ma nieħdux l-art tagħna?” while Borg volunteers distributed pastel-blue stickers emblazoned with “Futur li Jingħaqad.”

Local bookmaker Joe “il-Buffu” Pace, never one to miss a punt, slashed odds on Borg from 3-1 to evens after a leaked internal poll suggested 52 % of first-time PN voters under 35 backed the Rabat lawyer. “Mela, it’s like choosing between pastizz tal-irkotta and a vegan wrap,” he grinned, cigarette dangling. “One is tradition, the other is survival.” The metaphor quickly trended on Maltese Twitter, with memes superimposing Delia’s face on a ricotta pastizz and Borg’s on a quinoa salad—proof that even our political fights can’t escape food analogies.

Yet beneath the jokes lies deeper cultural fault-lines. The PN has always been more than a party here; it’s an identity woven into festa fireworks, village patron saints and the stubborn pride of a nation that once elected a mint-new party in 1921 and never looked back. A Delia victory could reignite the 2019 “Casa vs Delia” civil war, risking a split that would see Labour dance unchallenged at the next village feast. A Borg win, conversely, promises generational change but could alienate the rural core that still turns out for the annual Good Friday pageant in Żejtun, rosaries clicking like castanets.

As counting starts under the stern eyes of party officials and Electoral Commission scrutineers, the island holds its breath. The result will be declared at Dar Ċentrali by midnight, but its echoes will be felt in every bar that switches from Labour TV to Net News, every parent wondering if their child will finally find a reason to vote PN again. Whether Borg or Delia emerges, Malta’s most stubbornly Mediterranean trait—our ability to argue passionately yet still share a beer afterwards—will be tested anew.

The final envelope has been sealed, the last pastizz eaten. Now we wait, knowing that tomorrow’s front page will not just name a leader but sketch the silhouette of a party—and perhaps a country—deciding what it wants to be when it grows up.