Azzopardi’s shock declaration: ‘It doesn’t result that hundreds of messages were exchanged between Yorgen Fenech and Delia’

In a shocking declaration, the combative Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has said he is not aware of the existence of “hundreds” of messages exchanged between Yorgen Fenech and Adrian Delia as he made peace with the former leader.

The purported existence of these “hundreds” of messages had spurred the rebellion last year to oust Delia from the party leadership, an allegation championed by such MPs like Azzopardi and a party faction opposed to Delia.

Azzopardi further declared that he had no reason to believe that the PN under Delia, or Delia himself, tried to torpedo David Casa’s re-election bid in the 2019 European Parliament election. This had also been at the heart of the accusations levelled at Delia by rebel MPs last year.

“Within this context Azzopardi says he has no reason to believe that the PN under Adrian Delia or Adrian Delia himself acted in any way or took decisions to undermine David Casa’s election as an MEP and it does not result to him that hundreds of messages were exchanged between Yorgen Fenech and Adrian Delia,” Azzopardi declared in the joint statement.

Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech is charged with masterminding the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

The comments came in a joint statement by Azzopardi and Delia, minutes before a party executive had to meet to discuss a Facebook spat between the two.

The urgent meeting was called by PN leader Bernard Grech. However, his decision to call the meeting was met with concern by several members who spoke to this newspaper and could not understand the motivation. They criticised Grech for shirking responsibility to reprimand the two MPs and shifting the onus onto the executive.

The party disseminated the declaration by both MPs on Thursday evening in which they withdrew allegations against each other.

In it, Azzopardi declared that Delia was not in the pocket of any businessperson and was committed to fight corruption without compromise.

On his part, Delia acknowledged that Azzopardi was at the forefront of the fight against corruption for which he was putting himself at risk.

Both MPs acknowledged each other’s roles in the fight against corruption, in spite of having publicly accused each other of incorrect behaviour over the last years.

The joint statement can be interpreted as a vindication of sorts for Delia after he was voted out of the party leadership last year.

Addressing the media, the Opposition leader Bernard Grech said that he is determined to strengthen the Nationalist Party, even if it means taking the hard decisions. 

“The feud between Jason Azzopardi and Adrian Delia has been resolved, and so the executive meeting did not need to carry on,” he said. “I have no doubt that we have to band together to win against the enemy that is the corruption by the Labour government.” 

MPs Jason Azzopardi and Adrian Delia refused to comment any further following the meeting, stating their views were expressed in the party’s statement.