‘My obligation remains giving the Nationalist Party back to the people’ – Delia

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has insisted that for the party to regain credibility, it needs to become the party of the people, and to understand their hopes and aspirations, as well as their troubles.

Delia was speaking during an interview on NET FM where he insisted that the PN could lose other day before making changes.  “It must open its doors and bring in new faces.”

Asked by his interviewer about the week’s events, and the announcement of a truce in the internal conflict between him and former leader Simon Busuttil, Delia said it had been an important week, but by no means the end of the road.

Delia said that it had been evident from before he was elected party leader, that the PN’s process of renewal was always going be difficult, and that it was “always going to be case that someone does not agree”.

“Some to lesser, some to a greater extent, some in private and some in public, some behind closed doors and in secret,” Delia said, adding that this was all part of the process the PN had to go through.

He said numbers were showing that the PN is still losing people and is still not convincing people that it has truly been renewed. “It is therefore obvious that there will be many who agree or disagree when you are implementing many changes at a go.”

Delia said that, while some agreed that the PN needed to become the party of the people, there were still those who did not. “Despite what is said, effectively, my obligation is to give the Nationalist Party back to the people, and only then will people start to believe us, because we have lost our credibility.”

He said the PN’s new way was to admit when things were good and to propose ways of making it better. “The time for the politics of hatred is over.”

Delia said the PN needed to discuss things that affect people every day, ranging from food quality to traffic and waste management. “We must start showing people that we are working on solutions, on alternatives.”

Turning to the recently announced increase in the price of fuel, Delia said that in a matter of weeks, both the price of bread and fuel increased drastically.

He said that effect of the increase in fuel went beyond those who simply used the car for getting around, but would also have a knock-on effect on commercial vehicle users.

“These are things were the get an announcement today, and then we start feeling the effect later down the line.” 

Too many people can’t make it till the end of the month

Delia said that some weeks ago he had said that the country had lost its social conscience. He said that not only was there an increase an increase in those who were “effectively poor” but there was also an increase in those at risk of poverty.

“The government can say what it wants. There are about 70,000 people that have serious problems making it to the end of the month,” Delia said. “People who can’t afford to buy good food and who can’t afford to give their children a good education.”                

The PN leader accused the government of having no long-term plan, pointing out that some sectors of the economy were in overdrive, and leaving an impact on other sectors in society.

One example, he said, was criminality, which he said had increased in recent years. Delia said that while Malta was previously a quiet Mediterranean island, it felt as though there was shrouded in a “black cloud of criminality”.