Jean Pierre Debono’s U-turn on resignation shows Delia ran out of all options

After claiming in his election campaign that he had a clear route to the House, Delia could only rely on MP Jean Pierre Debono’s resignation to take up his seat in parliament

New PN MP Jean Pierre Debono gave up his seat on the 7th district paving the way for a casual election
New PN MP Jean Pierre Debono gave up his seat on the 7th district paving the way for a casual election

The resignation of MP Jean Pierre Debono, despite his clear denials just two months that he would resign his seat for Adrian Delia’s co-option, has shown how the PN’s new leader was shown no clemency from other MPs in his bid to take up a seat in the House.

Debono was just one of the five MPs from the 30 members of the PN parliamentary group who was openly backing Delia in the election against Nationalist MP Chris Said.

None of the MPs elected by casual election accepted to resign their seat for Delia's co-option.

Debono himself refuted claims that he was considering giving up his seat in Parliament to make way for Delia to become leader of the opposition: in July, when Delia was claiming that he already had a clear path to a parliamentary seat, Debono denied reports in Labour organ Kulhadd and the GWU daily l-orizzont, which claimed Debono would resign as MP so that his wife Kristy, also an MP, could take up the post of deputy leader for parliamentary affairs.

On 30 July, Debono criticised both newspapers over their insistence in claiming that he would be resigning. “Today Labour continued inventing lies about me and my wife Kristy,” he wrote on Facebook. “It seems like our work within the Nationalist Psarty on the 7th and 9th district respectively is hitting Labour where it hurts.”

In another Facebook post on 22 August, Debono had objected to a letter which had been published in L-Orizzont, and which once again claimed Debono would give up his seat in Parliament for Delia.

“If this newspaper wants to earn credibility, this newspaper should stop publishing lies and repeating lies about me,” he had written.

On Sunday, 24 September, when all other efforts to get an other MP to resign his seat clearing the way for Delia to get into Parliament – Jean Pierre Debono confirmed he was – indeed – resigning his seat in parliament, for the good of the party and the country.