Defiant PN leader says statute does not provide for his removal

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has insisted he will not rule anything out, in the best interests of the party, following Tuesday night’s executive committee vote.

On Tuesday, 47 members from the PN’s national executive voted against Delia, while 35 voted in favour, with one abstaining. The motion was forwarded by former MP Michael Asciak.

Asked whether he would consider a leadership contest, Delia said he would not be ruling out anything, “in the best interest of the party”.

Insisting there is no mechanism within the party statute which allows for his removal, Delia said he still had to shoulder the responsibility of the messages sent by the parliamentary group and executive committee.

“I am considering everything which is of benefit to the party, but you have to compare the messages sent by the parliamentary group and the executive committee with that of the party members,” Delia said.

“This is not something which you decide overnight, but I find it difficult to understand how I can ignore the strong vote of the party members, or the second strong vote of the council members,” he said, referring to the 2019 vote.

Reacting to Louis Galea’s statement, Delia insisted he was not abusing of the card-holding members’ vote.

Louis Galea turned his back on the PN leader, calling on him to resign after losing another confidence vote in the party’s executive committee, emphasising that it was totally wrong for Delia to devalue party organs and say that such votes with a clear majority have no consequence

“I don’t know of any democratic country where a political leader loses the confidence of the majority of his MPs and his national executive, and the leader does not choose the obvious and honourable path and paves the way for a change in governance,” Galea said.

Delia said it was the people who expressed a lack of confidence in himself who were abusing of the members’ votes, insisting they were the ones not respecting party structures.