Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1122313
5 maltatoday | MONDAY • 27 MAY 2019 EUROPE 2019 Adrian Delia soldiers on KURT SANSONE & MASSIMO COSTA ADRIAN Delia has insisted he will not relinquish the leadership of the Na- tionalist Party despite a historic drub- bing, insisting he could not abandon a party in difficulty. "I don't say this out of arrogance… the PN is in difficulty and I will not abandon it half way. We fail a lot in life… it is easy to celebrate in victory, the test is to pluck up courage and move ahead when things are tough," Delia said. He was speaking to journalists after visiting the Naxxar counting hall on Sunday evening. Delia thanked party volunteers, as he shook hands with them. The scene contrasted with the ab- sence of Delia's predecessor, Simon Busuttil, who failed to turn up at the counting hall in the last general elec- tion. Delia visited the counting hall after delivering a message on NET TV in which he conceded defeat. Delia said he would stay on until the next general election, adding he had been given a five-year mandate by party councillors. "I have only been here for a year-and- a-half and I want to continue what I started. I am not a person who stops half way," Delia said, acknowledging that things had to change. Delia said the party had to listen to the message people delivered in the election and understand why they chose not to make the PN's message theirs. Asked about dissent within his par- liamentary group, Delia said his door was open but it took two to tango. "I have to start by looking at myself and one of the defects was that I did not find enough time to meet all the people individually. But we also have to widen the people and attract new blood, and looking to the next general election, we have to attract new candi- dates," Delia said. The PN leader said he was not con- templating a reshuffle of responsibili- ties in the parliamentary group. "This is not something I was con- sidering. I was following the outcome with tranquillity and I don't think this election has any impact on how they discharge their parliamentary duties," he said. Asked about the Prime Minister's comment that the result was a rejec- tion of those MEPs who berated Malta in Brussels, Delia insisted this did not appear to be the case because the ma- jority of votes received by the PN went to Roberta Metsola and David Casa, the two MEPs in Muscat's line of fire Prior to his visit to the counting hall, opposition leader Adrian Delia ad- dressed his party's humiliating defeat in the European Parliament elections at a press conference where he indi- cated he will not resign. "We are not going to abandon the road we have taken... we must meet more people, more social partners, more institutions, and civil society. We must understand their needs and how to represent them," he said. Delia, in a brief address on NET TV on Sunday evening, acknowledged that the results were clear, and that Labour had won the European elec- tions with an absolute majority of votes and would obtain a fourth seat in the European Parliament. Delia said that the PN should not lose heart even in the face of "trying times", and made an appeal to reach out for the youth vote. He insisted that, despite the big loss, the PN remained Malta's second big- gest party, and it was now important to not give up, and to continue rep- resenting the people who voted for it while increasing the effort to listen to the people's concerns. "We know the PN has faced ma- jor challenges in the past months - I joined the PN at one of the worst points in its history," Delia said. "There were financial difficulties - which still exist - and a large deficit of votes, which has now increased," he said. "This means we must work harder and understand why we are still not the choice of the people." Thousands had chosen not to vote, he said, underlining the need to in- quire why these people had opted not to take part in the democratic process. The process to revitalise the party would take more than a few months he said, and the PN had no choice but to face the difficult period before it. He said the PN would be humble and cautious in trying to understand why voters had not chosen the party in these elections. "The process [within the party] started and it is not one which will just have a duration of a few months. We must go through this period, and I invite everyone who wants to embark on this journey with us to join us," he added, "The road is long, but we have to go through it, and we must do so together". 'The PN is in difficulty and I will not abandon it half way'