Jason Azzopardi endorses FB post calling for ‘new leader to unite party’

Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi was one of the first to ‘like’ a Facebook group set up on Monday calling for a new leader to unite the party.

The group called PN Mill-Ġdid Rebbieħ (The PN, a Winning Party Once Again) was set up by unknown individuals. It is unclear whether this forms part of an organised effort to pile more pressure on Adrian Delia to resign.

Azzopardi not only ‘liked’ the page but added his thumbs up to one of the few posts so far showing a picture of former leader Eddie Fenech Adami in his glory days with the message: “We want a leader who unites us and makes the PN a winning party once again.”

Azzopardi has been one of the PN MPs who called for Delia’s resignation in the wake of the disastrous European and local council election results.

The development comes after petitioners reportedly collected the 150 signatures necessary to force the president of the general council to call an extraordinary meeting.

The petition is calling on the general council to hold a vote of confidence in PN leader Adrian Delia.

Delia has so far resisted calls for his resignation and insisted he was given a mandate by PN members to lead the party until the next general election.

Meanwhile, on Monday, former PN executive president Mark Anthony Sammut endorsed the petition.

Writing on his Facebook wall, Sammut said he endorsed the call “coming from across a wide sector of the party” and signed the request for the party to hold a general council where the vote will be taken.

“The disastrous results of the European and local council elections make it imperative to do so. It is clear from the result that in the past almost two years the party has burnt many bridges with big chunks of its very own electorate. We have not only not convinced those who had left, but we have even lost more from among our own core,” Sammut wrote.

He insisted that adopting a "business as usual" approach or superficial initiatives to tackle a profound problematic situation was “never a proper solution”.

Sammut said the PN had to start by taking “full and honest” stock of reality. “Only then can it rethink, rebuild and relaunch,” he added.

Sammut said those who brunt the bridges can never succeed in rebuilding them, pinning the problem on the current leadership.

Addressing the argument that Delia was elected by party members, Sammut said he respected the vote of the 7,734 tesserati, adding that he worked tirelessly over this year and a half to try to make that choice a success.

Admitting failure in this mission, Sammut said it was now time to respect the message of the 371,000 voters.

“It’s time we redirect the clear message of our own voters; a clear message sent in the manner of voting chosen by those who voted and in the equally clear message sent by those who chose not to vote. Change is a must. And the time is now.”