Adrian Delia ‘would not be good’ for PN, AZAD head says

The head of the Nationalist Party think-thank AZAD has dismissed Adrian Delia as being a good prospect to take on the party’s leadership, saying Delia’s character – not being able to discuss or talk things through – would not be good for a democratic political party.

Commenting on Facebook, David Griscti said that it was not true that he was against Delia but he did not want anyone “to sell something that is not genuine to the Nationalists”.

“I am sorry but I need to put the party before my friendship of 43 years with Adrian,” he wrote. “Maybe people will now realise just how difficult it is for me to say this.”

Delia is contesting the PN's upcoming leadership contest with Chris Said, Alex Perici Calascione and Frank Portelli.

Griscti said he knew Delia was a capable man but insisted that his character is not good for a political party.

“Discussion, dialogue and debate do not exist for him, and this is a problem for a democratic political party.” he wrote. “That is not a New Way” (in reference to Delia’s campaign slogan ‘Mod Gdid’).

Griscti acknowledged the need for change within the PN and for those who had been “there for four years and more” to accept the blame for the situation the party now found itself in.

“I would be mad to say otherwise because for the past four years I have been fighting in there for this very thing,” he wrote. “But I know for a fact Delia does not represent a New Way of doing things … It’s a fact that he benefited like crazy under the Nationalist governments and that he was one of the blue-eyed boys.”

Griscti pointed that the PN’s report on the 2013 election loss had made it clear that many were fed up and had rebelled against a system that favoured the same few people.

He asked whether it would be a ‘New Way’ to have one of those who gained the most in the past elected leader of the PN.

“I do not think so and I think [Prime Minister Joseph] Muscat and [Labour Party media house] One know this and will be rejoicing,” he said. “Do you think a New Way to have the King of Contractor, who has made a lot of money in this sector (and that is his busines), elected PN leader when the country is suffocating in construction, etc?”

Griscti said that because of his long friendship with Delia, he – more than others – needed to look at what was in the best interests of the party, and not his own.

“My obvious best interest would be to make use of Adrian and enjoy myself,” he wrote. “I chose the party, but what else can I do, if you don’t want to listen?”

Richard Muscat laments ‘fratricidal war’ among supporters

Meanwhile, also on Facebook, former PN parliamentary secretary Richard Muscat said that – like many Nationalists who had served the party for many years – he was hurt and disappointed by the ‘fratricidal war’ being waged between supporters of the PN leadership contenders.

“I am even more disappointed when I read posts by well-known party exponents who have thrown their hat into this diatribe of mud-slinging against the candidates they do not support,” he wrote.

Muscat insisted this was not helping to generate a serious and constructive dialogue at such a delicate moment for the party and the country.

“This is very damaging, and I hope it is irreparable damage,” he said. “It is not only the PN that stands to get hurt, but the country too.”