Hermann Schiavone willing to sacrifice seat to get Adrian Delia into parliament

Nationalist MP Hermann Schiavone has already offered his seat to newly-elected leader Adrian Delia, should it be necessary, according to the MP himself.

Writing on Facebook in response to media reports that he was being pressured into giving up his seat, insisting this was not the case.

“I want to reassure everyone that there is no pressure on me. On the contrary, I have already offered by seat if it becomes necessary,” wrote the MP.

“Not only do I believe, but I also practice the often-cited phrase about the party being greater than the individual,” he added.

Schiavone was elected to parliament for the first time in last June’s general election, after having been prevented by the party from running in the 2013 election. He was the first MP to back Delia’s bid.

Delia was elected leader almost a week ago however he has still not announced how he will be obtaining a parliamentary seat, despite his reassurances over the course of the leadership campaign, that this would not be an issue.

Delia’s route to taking up his constitutional role as Opposition leader can only be achieved by a co-option the House, which requires the resignation of a sitting MP. The MPs elected by casual election – whose resignation would automatically allow for Delia’s co-option – appear to be unwilling to resign their seat.

Without any of the ‘casual’ MPs giving up their seat, it would mean that Delia can only hope to find one of his parliamentary supporters to resign their seat, while also succeeding in convincing all other candidates on the district of his resigned seat not to run for the casual election.