Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1148959
25 OPINION perceived) ringleaders are made to walk the plank, as Delia has already hinted… the voters they spoke out for will still be there, scattered about the electorate in every single district. Under those circumstances, 'defeat for Delia' would only mean his replacement by a new, but equally unelectable, leader. Because Adrian Delia will not take the actual prob- lems dogging his own tenure with him when (or if) he goes. No, he will leave those on the desk for his successor to discover at his or her own leisure… much like Gonzi had left that 'Send in the Clowns' magazine at Castille, way back in 2013. This leaves us with the much likelier prospect: Adrian Delia winning the vote of confidence by pretty much any percentage you care to name. For roughly all the same reasons, the extent of his victory will hardly matter. Sure, a strong showing – say, anything above 75% – will give him more security of tenure in the short term. But even if it's anywhere near the 97% that endorsed Ed- die Fenech Adami in 1996, or the 96% for Gonzi in 2012, it would only mean that Adrian Delia has consolidated his po- sition with the party rank and file. It tells us nothing about his standing with the wider electorate… and we all got a glimpse of that, at last month's European election. Paradoxically, it was Delia's very unelectability that (of- ficially, at least) had prompted the calls for a confidence vote in the first place. In an opinion piece published on Friday, the prime movers of the origi- nal petition (including Ivan Bartolo) asked: "Why is it so important that we protect the Nationalist Party above eve- rything and everyone? First, because Delia is unelectable. This is so obvious that the Labour Party and its cronies openly defend him so he can stay…" One could, of course, ques- tion whether that really was the prime motive. Other possibilities spring to mind: including that Delia had won the 2017 leadership contest precisely on the grounds that he wanted to 'reclaim' the party from a faction that had 'usurped' it. It is eminently understand- able that the 'usurping faction' might have a thing or two to say about that, in the pri- vacy of their own WhatsApp groups… But no matter: fact remains that they are perfectly right. Delia really is unelectable… precisely because his inter- nal opponents have stolidly refused to rally around him since the day he entered his nomination for the PN leader- ship race. Much more devastatingly, a sizeable sector of the tradi- tionally Nationalist-voting electorate has clearly indicated that it would sooner cut off its own arm, than use it to vote for a party led by Delia. This was evident from one of the very first candle-lit vigils held in honour of Daphne Caruana Galizia, back in 2017. Adrian Delia was booed when he showed up at the Sliema venue… marking the first time in living memory that a PN leader was given the middle finger, in the middle of its most reliable electoral strongholds: the 10th District. Again, there is an irony wrapped up in this paradox. Among other things, it was precisely the 'loss' of the 10th district to the PD – as a direct result of that ill-judged 'Forza Malta' coalition idea – that prompted so many National- ist councillors to cast their vote for Delia after the 2017 election. There, alone, you can almost see the full extent of the PN's existential crisis. The faction that lost Sliema, is now bat- tling the other faction that got elected specifically to re-win it… It follows, as sure as night follows day, that neither 'side' can possibly be expected to do that on its own. And if you take the 10th district as a microcosm of the PN's support-base across the entire country… you will find that the same pattern unfolds eve- rywhere else, too. Delia has his own supporters; the 'Barra Brigade' – kudos to Louise Tedesco for coining that, by the way – has its own supporters, too… both depend on the support of the other, to have any hope of one day forming a nationwide majori- ty… yet both have precipitated the one course of action that precludes all hope of possible future reconciliation. They have separately asked the Executive Council to choose between the warring clans… without seeming to re- alise that this will only expose the full extent of the fault-line splitting that council into two… and, much more beside: they have paved the way for a 'winner-takes-all' scenario, in which the 'winner' actually only takes a fraction of the whole. It's reminds me a little of the Gunfight at the OK Corrall… or whatever Western that line was from: 'This [party] just ain't big enough for the two of us. One of us has gotta go'… So inevitably, it has to end with a long walk down that dusty, tumbleweed-strewn street at high noon, for a guns- blazing showdown that will leave one gang utterly wiped out, and the other limping away, mortally wounded… Honestly: who even needs Nostradamus to predict the outcome? It's like Highlander: 'There can only be one'…. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JULY 2019 So inevitably, it has to end with a long walk down that dusty, tumbleweed-strewn street at high noon, for a guns-blazing showdown that will leave one gang utterly wiped out, and the other limping away, mortally wounded… Honestly: who even needs Nostradamus to predict the outcome? It's like Highlander: 'There can only be one'….