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2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 MAY 2021 An uneasy compromise that resolves nothing Editorial THE latest war of words, between the same two Na- tionalist MPs, may have culminated in a joint decla- ration of ceasefire between the two; but if PN leader Bernard Grech seriously believes that "the feud be- tween Jason Azzopardi and Adrian Delia has been resolved", he must be delusional. First of all, this 'feud' has a long history behind it: indeed, it started ever since Adrian Delia first announced his intention to run for the party lead- ership, after the disastrous 2017 election result. Azzopardi had opposed Delia's nomination from the very start: partly as a result of his public spats with Daphne Caruana Galizia (Azzopardi is today the Caruana Galizia family lawyer); but partly also because Delia himself was identified as a threat to a core party establishment – including Azzopardi himself, among others – that had controlled the PN's direction for years. A lot has been added to that basic premise, over the past three years. But beneath the surface an- tagonism of a feud between two individuals, there lurks a much deeper malaise. Yet, on the surface, it remains merely a public tiff between two rival politicians – even if, deep down, Bernard Grech must surely know that this dangerous feud has long-term implications which, if left unchecked, may even threaten the future ex- istence of the Nationalist Party as a whole. From this perspective, Grech's handling of this situation has also raised serious questions about his own leadership skills. By convening an ex- ecutive committee meeting, which includes the entire parliamentary group, to discuss this latest spat, Grech drew as much attention as possible to something he should have been minimising as just another Facebook fracas between sworn enemies. Instead of convening the two MPs to resolve the matter privately – as any level-headed party boss would have done – Grech gave advance notice that he himself deemed the matter worthy enough of party-wide attention. It was a move disliked by MPs from both sides of the internal divide, for indeed it also served as a very public reminder of those divisions to begin with. Even on a strategy level, the move made little sense: it would only have given the much-maligned Adrian Delia an audience to vent his frustrations about Jason Azzopardi (of which he has many; and grievous ones, too). Then, at the eleventh hour, it was announced that Grech's executive committee meeting did not take place: in part because advisors feared that the effect would be to make a public show of disgrun- tled support for Delia (as had happened during the PN leadership election). Instead, Grech met the two MPs – one the for- mer leader he himself displaced upon his election, the other a vocal antagonist to Delia's leadership – and had a stern exchange with them. The out- come was a kiss-and-make-up statement by the two MPs, which, for all its language of absolution, lacked any real genuineness. In a nutshell: nobody out there truly believes that this war of attrition was ended by the mediation of party leader Bernard Grech with a forced state- ment in which two sworn enemies pay fulsome tribute to each other, and make a retraction of their most forceful accusations. If anything, it was Delia who savoured the mo- ment, when he published the joint statement on his Facebook wall and parroted the much-loved PN slogan 'is-sewwa jirbaħ żgur' (Justice will al- ways prevail). For someone who has been dogged with accusa- tions of excessive chumminess with Tumas mag- nate Yorgen Fenech; and even of having attempted to skewer the electoral chances of PN MEP David Casa – which were indeed the reasons why the an- ti-Delia faction felt emboldened enough to engi- neer his removal – the former PN leader finally got to see Jason Azzopardi eat his words. Still, there is no doubt that this a declaration of falsity: and one that does Bernard Grech himself no favours, either. It is hard to believe that a self- avowed anti-corruption crusader like Azzopardi – like him or not – has suddenly backed down on his long-held views of Adrian Delia; and the same goes for the latter. In issuing such a statement, Grech has only drawn more attention to the fire that engulfed the PN's house, rather than to his effort to put that fire out. Not only does the public show of division cost the PN in terms of its electoral bid to win govern- ment; but it also risks isolating Grech, who needs the loyalty of both factions of MPs, the ones who had backed his incumbent rival, Delia, and the 're- bel' MPs who backed him. Bernard Grech has therefore missed out on an opportunity to acknowledge the division inside the party with a statement of his own, reflecting his role as party leader, before resolving the matter privately between both MPs. One wonders whether Grech's advisors are in- deed attuned to the inner politics of the party, and able to manage such feuds without incurring fur- ther damage. In the meantime, Labour kicks back and enjoys the circus... who will stand up to the unchecked power of a popular government? 5 May 2011 Pro-divorce lobby accuses anti-divorce of 'malicious' mistranslation 'NO fault divorce' does not translate into 'di- vorce without reason' (divorzju bla raġuni), says Moviment Iva chairperson Dr Deborah Schem- bri, describing the latter as a 'myth' intended to mislead the public. Schembri was reacting on Saturday to a new- ly unveiled billboard set up by the Moviment Zwieg Bla Divorzju which reads "Divorce with- out reason. No thanks", a message she said was similar to those being propounded by Church representation. In her address, Schembri accused the anti-di- vorce lobby of "maliciously" mistranslating the definition to "intentionally mislead the public" as to what is being discussed. "I know for a fact that the lobby's core group is made up lawyers who know the difference between 'reason' and 'fault'," she said. "I cannot but be concerned at the idea that the lobby is intentionally attempting to mislead the public," she said. Schembri added that this "misleading" definition of no-fault divorce "only serves to convey a mistaken idea that divorce is frivolous and unnecessary." Schembri also said that existing separation procedures (required for anyone requesting a divorce) already address fault-based issues. "Where we to set up a fault-based divorce, we would only be addressing the same issue twice," she said. "Fault is already part of the system. The idea that 'guilty' parties would be rewarded is com- pletely flawed." Schembri was speaking during a press confer- ence where she explained certain finer points of the divorce bill currently tabled in parliament. She said that eligibility for divorce hinged on either having already lived apart for the previous four years out of five or been separated for four years. "This means that contrary to what is being said, there is no way that someone can wake up one morning, and immediately get a divorce." She also stressed that divorce eligibility is also conditional on the exhaustion of any chance of reconciliation, and that the new divorce laws would ensure better protection of the rights of those involved – particularly those who are de- pendent on the family. Quote of the Week "The appeal was always directed at finding that delicate point, where there is balance between the built-up environment and the natural environment, in these small islands of ours." President George Vella defending a social media post in which he voiced concern at the construction of a four-storey tenement just a few metres away from a scheduled building close to his hometown street in Żejtun MaltaToday 10 years ago