PN parliamentary group to meet on Monday, executive to meet on Saturday

Updated at 5:20pm with PN Executive Committee

The Nationalist Party’s parliamentary group will be meeting on Monday, the party’s deputy leader for parliamentary affairs said.

Agius confirmed that the meeting would be held on Monday afternoon, but declined to comment about what would be on the agenda, insisting this was never divulged beforehand. The meeting was called by party leader Adrian Delia. 

Asked about the fact that the group hadn’t met in a while, Agius insisted that it was up to leadership to decide when to schedule meetings.

He explained that since being elected to House he had served under various leaders, and pointed out that it was not necessarily the case that group needed to meet regularly.

Meetings, he said, could be held often when required, and less frequently during other periods, like summer. Ultimately, Agius insisted, what was important was that meetings took place and that they were scheduled for days when the largest number of MPs could attend.

READ MORE: I will take PN to next general election, Adrian Delia says ruling out confidence vote

The group has not met in over two months, raising questions as to when the next meeting would be convened. The party’s statute states that a meeting of the parliamentary group must be held once a month, or whenever it is called by the party leader.

The meeting comes at a time of uncertainty as many within the party are calling for Delia, as well as the rest of the party leadership to resign, in light of the PN’s dismal showing at the polls in last month’s elections.

Sister paper Illum yesterday reported that Delia was meeting MPs individually in order to appeal to them to work for the same cause, however the sources who spoke to the newspaper said the meetings had not been constructive. 

READ MORE: PN executive president Mark Anthony Sammut resigns: ‘Result is disastrous and others should do the same’

On the other hand, the PN executive committee will be meeting on Saturday morning to decide who will be co-opted in Parliament to fill the seat vacated last week by David Stellini.

On the agenda is a discussion of the result of the European and local council elections which saw the PN perform miserably, registering historic defeats. The meeting will also aim to discuss the setting up of an electoral commission to fill in the vacant seats in both the executive committee and the administrative council.

The PN confirmed with MaltaToday that anybody who is unable to attend the executive committee must inform the party’s political coordinator, Jean Pierre Debono.

Debono himself had been at the centre of controversy after the PN executive elected him, by a majority of just two votes, to be co-opted in filling Stellini's seat despite the argument that the seat should be filled by Kevin Cutajar as the next in line to represent Gozo.

It was alleged however that it was Debono himself who compiled a list of voters, allowing him an advantage over Cutajar and subsequently he then declared he would not take up the seat.

As of now, Cutajar remains the only person who has shown interest in filling Stellini's now vacant seat.

READ ALSO: Kevin Cutajar says ‘relevant progress registered’ in PN co-option saga