Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/919364
maltatoday SUNDAY 24 DECEMBER 2017 News 3 mate of fear. The narrative put forward by a noisy minority failed to gain enough traction to unsettle Muscat's see- saw. The arraignment of three sus- pects connected to Caruana Gali- zia's murder, less than two months after it happened, will make it hard- er for the seesaw to buckle. Even if the people who commis- sioned the murder have not yet been identified, the fact that three men were charged in court repre- sents a major step forward, espe- cially for those who remember the brutal killings of Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana that were never solved. In 2017 Muscat appears to have ridden the waves that came his way. But even if his persona does not emerge completely unscathed, and the un- finished Egrant inquiry remains like the sword of Damocles hanging over his career, for the time being Muscat ends a seesaw year on top. Adrian Delia's baptism of fire Adrian Delia came from nowhere to take the Nationalist Party, and to a lesser extent, the country by storm. So unsettling was his election as PN leader to many within the party structures that Delia faced, and continues to face an uphill struggle to convince even his own voters. The man has not yet stamped his authority on the party and its beliefs. Since taking the steering wheel in hand last September, Delia played the waiting game until all in- ternal elections were complete. He ensured councillors and mem- bers elected more sympathetic offi- cials in the party hierarchy and used the IVF leave motion to smoke out the rebels within the PN parliamen- tary group. The record sum collected by the PN in the December telethon has boosted Delia's standing within the party. But judging Delia's performance so far is hard. He will increasingly be compared to his predecessor and his direct rival Joseph Muscat. Delia's entry into the political scene came as a baptism of fire. In Daphne Caruana Galizia, he had a common nemesis with the Prime Minister. During the summer months, the journalist used her Running Com- mentary to disparage Adrian Delia and all those who supported his leadership bid. She lambasted people like Clyde Puli and David Agius over appoint- ments to public posts under previ- ous Nationalist administrations when she had closed an eye to cro- nyism. But vowing to oppose Delia's populist style, nobody was sparred the onslaught and Puli and Agius happened to be sympathisers. And then came the exposure of Delia's links to a London-based prostitution network run by his Maltese clients a decade earlier. De- lia had an offshore bank account in his name, which he held on behalf of his clients. Delia denied wrongdoing and insisted he gave up the brief when he found out the London property held by his clients was being used for prostitution services. The accusations did not damage Delia's chances to become leader. Party members gave him thumbs- up when he faced Chris Said in a run-off last September but Delia faced stiff resistance within his par- liamentary group. Delia understood that talking only about corruption and bad govern- ance was not enough to sway the electorate the PN's way – the tactic used by his predecessor backfired badly in the last election. But going about imposing his 'new way' proved to be harder than ex- pected and in the wake of Caruana Galizia's murder, Delia had no op- tion but to initially maintain the hard-line stance of his predecessor. There was an evolution though. From the hard-hitting Budget reac- tion speech in which he unconvinc- ingly called for the Prime Minister's resignation, Delia's reaction to the announcement that the police had arrested 10 suspects in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation was measured. Delia understood the importance of the development and did not belittle it, as some activists within the protest groups that took to the streets in the aftermath of the mur- der tried to do. Whether this reflects Delia's grad- ual consolidation of his grip on the party still has to be seen. Earlier this month Delia put distance between him and his predecessor, Simon Bu- suttil, who remains an overbearing figure in Parliament, when he of- fered the Prime Minister consensus on Malta's decision to stay out of a new EU defence body. Busuttil had questioned the judi- ciousness of opting out of the de- fence programme. But as Delia finds his feet, many more pitfalls lie ahead and the PN leader will have to chart out a politi- cal course for a party that appears to have lost its identity after Malta joined the EU. Getting there will require tak- ing decisions that balance out the conservative and liberal wings in the PN, which can only mean that Delia's baptism of fire is likely to ex- tend well into the next year. For the time being, though, Delia ends 2017 in a stronger position than when he took over the party reins. How long this relative calm will last might not depend on him alone. In 2017 Muscat appears to have ridden the waves that came his way but the Egrant inquiry is like the sword of Damocles hanging over his career As Delia finds his feet, many more pitfalls lie ahead and the PN leader will have to chart out a political course for a party that appears to have lost its identity after Malta joined the EU PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI