Pyrrhic victory for Delia and Grech’s faux pas: the PN’s weaknesses exposed
Bernard Grech’s election as leader was supposed to bring back normality to the PN. But last week’s déjà vu brought back division outside the party headquarters. Kurt Sansone looks at the impact of this affair on the three protagonists
12 May 2021, 8:00am
by Kurt Sansone
Adrian Delia: A Pyrrhic victory
Adrian Delia faced an acrimonious rebellion last year by MPs who wanted him out. The rebellion eventually led to a fresh leadership contest that Delia lost. There were multiple reasons underpinning the rebellion but two issues pushed the matter over the brink. The first issue was linked to revelations that Delia had exchanged WhatsApp messages with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech when it was known that Fenech owned 17 Black but his involvement in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination was not yet public knowledge. The second issue was linked to accusations that Delia had conspired with Fenech to undermine David Casa’s re-election bid to the European Parliament in 2019. In July last year, Delia had filed a judicial protest against fellow MP Jason Azzopardi, accusing him of spreading false and defamatory messages that implied there were “hundreds” of WhatsApp exchanges between Delia and Fenech. But in a clamorous turn of events this week, Azzopardi agreed to a joint declaration with Delia in which he recanted on the two issues that played an important role in the former leader’s ouster.