Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1148959
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JULY 2019 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 He reached out to No voters, insisting that he respected their choice. Delia asked his detrac- tors to "have faith" in the party and invited them to be active within it. The Yes vote in favour of Delia was backed by 920 councillors, while 438 voted No. There were around 100 councillors who did not vote, while 22 votes were in- valid. Pressure had been mounting on Delia to resign after the re- sults of May's European and lo- cal elections that saw the PN suf- fer its worst ever defeats. The PN leader resisted the calls and eventually called for a vote of confidence when his detrac- tors collected signatures to force an extraordinary general confer- ence. Evidently relieved by the re- sult, Delia yesterday promised to push for change in the party. "I will take comfortable and less comfortable decisions… I will change whatever needs to be changed but I ask you to be part of this change with me. Let us give this country a new Nation- alist Party," he said to applause and chants of 'Delia, Delia'. He added that the party had to undergo reform so that it would once again become "a tool in fa- vour of democracy". It has to be seen whether some of Delia's more vocal critics in the parliamentary group will now play ball but in a statement just after the result was out, the group of councillors who pushed for the no confidence vote con- ceded defeat and urged the lead- er to take note of the opposition against him. Former PN executive president Mark Anthony Sammut and others said the general council outcome reflected the election results, which showed that a substantial part of the electorate did not trust Delia. "We appeal to the PN leader to understand that there is still a substantial part of the party base, and more importantly, of the electorate, which he still has to convince," the anti-Delia peti- tioners said. They urged Delia to enact change and take the necessary decisions to be able to win the trust of these people, "without whom the party can never make it". "We will continue working, like we have done every day over the past years for the good of the PN," they concluded. Delia's job to unify the party is not expected to be easy. As the result of the vote was being com- municated, his supporters jeered when electoral commission head Francis Zammit Dimech read out the No vote result. The conflict within the PN has driven wedges between party members and councillors with blistering outbursts on social media over the past few weeks. How it unfolded Voting started at 10am when Kristy Debono opened proceed- ings at the extraordinary general council. Delia gave a short but impas- sioned speech ahead of the confidence vote he called in the wake of May's disastrous local and European election results. Two short speeches from Delia supporter, Justin Schembri, and one of the proponents of a vote to remove the leader, Ivan Bar- tolo, preceded Delia's address. The councillors gathered in- side the main hall were over- whelmingly sympathetic to the PN leader and at one point, De- lia stood up to silence those who booed when Bartolo took the stage. Delia pulled out a speech he made 33 years ago when he had addressed the PN general conference as a Birkirkara rep- resentative for the MZPN, the PN's youth group. It was a mes- sage intended to silence critics who accuse him of only becom- ing interested in the PN after the 2017 general election defeat. "Whoever thinks that I started operating within the National- ist Party two years ago should know that I was born in the Nationalist Party, I grew within the PN, I worked for the PN and now am leading the PN and will continue to commit all my ener- gies to this party until the day I die," Delia said. Delia urged councillors to vote Yes for party unity. He invoked the memory of the PN's previous leader and eventual prime minister and president Eddie Fenech Adami, saying that he would aspire to follow in his footsteps. "Fenech Adami didn't give up when they attacked his family and didn't back down despite achieving a majority and still wasn't able to govern. I will do the same... we have to decide whether the PN is 140 years old, or 140 years young," Delia said. Rightful leader – Justin Schembri Justin Schembri, councillor and minority leader in Birkirkara, representing support for Delia, said in his speech that he wasn't at the assembly to defend Delia but to defend the party. "From tomorrow, we will all have to pull the same rope be- cause we have the obligation to be a strong opposition to a gov- ernment that continuously fails us," Schembri said. He lamented the internal strug- gles within the PN, perpetuated by people who were attacking personalities rather than con- tributing to wholesome discus- sions. He acknowledged the PN was riven by factions and called on councillors to respect the demo- cratic choice of party members when they chose Delia as leader. "Since we're all upholding democratic principles, otherwise we wouldn't be here for a vote, then we should all agree that De- lia is the rightful leader," Schem- bri said. 'Either back him or back off' – Ivan Bartolo Former PN candidate Ivan Bar- tolo, who has been the face of the anti-Delia camp since May, took the stage after Schembri to boos from the crowd. Delia stood up from the front row seat and urged anyone who did not want to listen to leave the premises. "In the Nationalist Party, we never made anyone our saviour or our king. In 2017, I voted with pleasure for Adrian De- lia but that doesn't mean that since then I have had to agree with everything he says. If I don't agree, I have a right to say so," Bartolo said, adding that people around the leader should not be deferential especially if they were being led to disaster and that these same people should not fear challenging the status quo. Bartolo reminded the party members that ultimately the party leader was not going to be- come Prime Minister via them but through the electorate. He insisted that trust ratings and May's electoral results clear- ly showed that the PN could not win the next general election with Delia at the helm. But Bartolo also made it clear that if Delia won the vote, party people would have to "either back him up or back off". He re- ceived applause for his last state- ment. Additional reporting by Kurt Sansone NEWS Delia promises reform, reaches out to adversaries