Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1072992
3 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JANUARY 2019 Delia set to meet dissenters in one-on-one showdown PAUL COCKS NATIONALIST Party leader Adrian Delia is reaching out to a number of MPs consid- ered dissenters of his in a bid to present a unified front ahead of the upcoming Eu- ropean Parliament elections, MaltaToday has learned. A number of interlocutors, including party activists and at least one former MP, have been asked by people close to the party leadership to help bring a number of MPs – namely former leader Simon Busuttil, Jason Azzopardi, Karol Aquilina and Beppe Fenech Adami – to meet with Delia. A number of active party members, known to be close to the so-called "dissenters group" within the PN, have been approached and urged to convince their contacts to meet Delia in the coming days. In recent weeks, various at- tempts have been made by a disjointed number of party of- ficials to force Delia out. The latest attempts at forcing De- lia's resignation were fuelled by the revelation that the PN leader's wife – with whom is he is currently in a process of separation proceedings – had accused him of domestic violence against her and their children in court writs filed to counter his request to see his children. The situation was further compounded by the fact that several private messages and videos were made public and were circulating on social me- dia. The decision to meet the dissenters comes in the wake of a unanimous vote last Wednesday by the party's ad- ministrative council, which claimed it stood four-square behind Delia. Following that meeting, secretary-general Clyde Puli read out a statement in which the council condemned "in the most categorical terms the coordinated and mali- cious attacks being aimed at him [Delia] and the National- ist Party". "Today the grassroots spoke and today the administrative has spoken. From now it is business as usual for the Na- tionalist Party," Puli said. Sources who had previously spoken to MaltaToday said that while Delia may not have the support of a majority of the party's MPs, he was still largely backed by the party's members. Self-proclaimed supporters of Simon Busuttil, writing on private groups on Facebook, have been calling for a boy- cott of the MEP elections in protest at how the new party leadership has treated Busut- til. When asked to explain what they have against Delia, they tend to refer to his decision to ask Busuttil to resign his seat in parliament, a decision which they claim cemented the internal rift between the pro-Delia and pro-Busuttil camps. Some die-hard supporters told MaltaToday they would rather see the party lose an- other seat in the European Parliament than vote for the PN under Delia. But such a stance has not found common approval even within the so-called Busut- til's camp. The call for a boy- cott of the MEP elections has raised concerns by some who believe that serving MEPs Da- vid Casa and Roberta Metso- la, considered by supporters to form part of Busuttil's fac- tion simply because of having been elected long before Delia became leader, would suffer in the upcoming elections. Other members are now calling for a partial boycott of the elections, with Busut- til supporters voting only for Casa and Metsola and ignor- ing the other PN candidates on the ballot list. This latest development ap- pears to be gaining traction and is considered the real rea- son behind the attempts by Delia to meet the dissenters in the coming week. No-confidence motion Party members who oppose Delia are disappointed that ever since news of Delia's le- gal woes broke out, none of the main players presented a no-confidence motion in De- lia within the parliamentary group or any of the party's other bodies. MaltaToday is informed that in the past few weeks, a number of MPs were urged by party members to present a no-confidence motion in Delia. They believed that a motion highlighting the em- battled leader's legal woes would be enough to convince enough members to remove Delia. When asked to confirm if they had been encouraged to move such a motion or if they knew of an attempt to push a no-confidence motion against Delia, Jason Azzopardi, Clau- dio Grech, Beppe Fenech Ad- ami, Karol Aquilina and Ryan Callus refused to comment. Nationalist Party CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 naturally – opted not to seek the support of the Maltese government. The application for the post was scheduled to close by the end of last September and could also oblige the EASO director to be based in Ath- ens. The significance of Busuttil's decision to apply for a top EU job indicates his decision to move out of politics. Indeed, in comments to aides Busut- til had insisted that his inter- est was primarily restricted to the Panama Papers and seeking justice on the assas- sination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Busuttil was the National- ist Party's most popular MEP when he was elected twice, in 2004 and 2009. As MEP he enjoyed a high standing inside the European People's Party, distinguishing himself in the field of migra- tion, amongst other policy areas. In 2012, he stepped down to run for deputy leader of the PN, and was later elected leader in 2013. He led a vociferous cam- paign against the Labour gov- ernment, culminating with the Panama Papers scandal in 2016 and later, in the Egrant affair, where he embraced al- legations by Caruana Galizia that Joseph Muscat's wife was the owner of a secret offshore company. The allegations were never proven in a subse- quent magisterial inquiry. He stepped down in June 2017, giving way to the elec- tion of a new leader by paid- up members rather than by party delegates, a historic first in Maltese politics, but he showed himself to be opposed to Adrian Delia's candidature due to allegations pertaining to corporate services he ren- dered to a Maltese property owner connected to prostitu- tion in London. Busuttil seeking exit from politics A number of active party members, known to be close to the so-called "dissenters group" within the PN, have been approached and urged to convince their contacts to meet Delia in the coming days The EASO building in Valletta