Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/878567
23 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2017 Opinion decision taken by the same party's electors, and accept Adrian Delia as their leader. In other words, the machine of Parliamentary Opposition has been deliberately sabotaged, and is now ground to a halt... with dangerously destabilising effects on both the PN and the country as a whole. This brings us to the answer (or at least part of it) to that question in the headline. When Busuttil handed in his resignation last June, he was quoted as saying: "[I] will remain in place until the process is finished so that there will not be a vacuum in the party's leadership." He also said he would remain Opposition Leader "until the new PN leader assumes the role." I didn't notice the significance at the time; but I do now. Busuttil was fully aware that Delia would be facing this problem today... and he clearly intended to exploit it to the full, for his own advantage. But that, to be fair, is an internal battle Delia must now fight for himself. I have absolutely no interest in seeing him succeed, either. This is, after all, someone who feels he can dispense with all 'non-Catholic', 'non-Latin' (whatever that means) Maltese citizens with a simple wave of the hand; who bases his own party's identity on 'ethnicity' and 'religion'... and in so doing slams the door shut in the face of any Maltese citizen who might happen to be an atheist, a Muslim, a Jew or a Protestant. No, the problem I see with Busuttil's declaration is that – whatever the law might have to say in the matter – it is politically unsound. Busuttil has no moral authority (and certainly no mandate) to lay down his own terms of 'when' and 'how' to vacate the role of Opposition leader. If Delia cannot automatically assume the role, it does not follow Simon Busuttil can simply arrogate unto himself 'carte blanche' to occupy it forever. There are other Nationalist MPs who can fill the post in a caretaker capacity... going by the book, the likeliest would be the PN's deputy leader for Parliamentary Affairs. As for Busuttil himself: relinquishing that role does not spell an automatic end to his career as a politician. There is still the European Parliament, where his personal record is of a considerably different ilk. And there will always remain the possibility of a political comeback in future. But not in the present; and certainly not under these particular circumstances. Otherwise, there simply won't be a Nationalist Party to eventually come back to. The longer Simon Busuttil takes to realise this... and for the PN as a whole to realise that it is only wounding itself with this continued charade... the more irreversible the damage will be. Busuttil should do what Gonzi did before him: retire from Parliamentary politics, and give the rightful leader of the Nationalist party the space he needs to do what has to be done. In a nutshell: it is Simon Busuttil, and not any other MP, who should surrender his seat to Adrian Delia. Not because I say so, naturally. But because that's what the Nationalist Party itself has just voted for. Busuttil was fully aware that Delia would be facing this problem today... and he clearly intended to exploit it to the full, for his own advantage