[1][failed verification] Other political figures involved in the party's founding were Giuseppe Bonavia, Cesare Darmanin, and Giovanni Vassallo, whom were supportive of Savona, and Canon Ignazio Panzavecchia, Antonio Dalli, Andrea Pullicino, and Ernesto Manara.
[3] This election proved the PP to be a prominent political force since it challenged the PN's power especially when Sigismondo Savona led the poll amongst common electors.
The main reasons behind the party's rapid rise were due to Savona's stance on taxation and his ultranationalist views with regards the Maltese language and Malta's nationhood.
[citation needed] During Savona's leadership, the People's party main political positions were a demand for self-government and support for a marriage ordinance declaring invalid all marriages involving at least one Catholic party, contracted in Malta and not officiated by a Catholic priest.
Savona's retirement from politics in 1898 was in reaction to repeated refusals by the Council of Government to pass the marriage ordinance.