[WATCH] MPs do not dictate who the PN leader is, defiant Adrian Delia insists

Adrian Delia will remain at the helm of the Nationalist Party, insisting that MPs do not dictate who leads the party.

The PN leader stuck to his guns in a recorded interview on Xtra Sajf that will be broadcast tonight on TVM.

The interview was carried out before it was known that a majority of PN MPs had agreed to propose Therese Comodini Cachia as new Opposition leader to the President.
Asked whether in a month’s time he will still be Opposition leader, Delia said: “I will definitely be PN leader.”

He argued that the party statute made it clear that the leader is elected by the members. “MPs do not dictate who is leader,” he said, adding that members gave him a mandate to lead the party.

“If those members, the shareholders of the party, decide I am the problem I will take a step back. But if the PN after 25 years in government was criticised towards the end of being arrogant, what will people say when we tell members that their vote is worthless and irrelevant,” Delia insisted.

He projected a business as usual attitude, adding that after Tuesday’s vote of no confidence he continued working within the party.

Asked about the WhatsApp messages published by The Times last Sunday, which were an exchange between Delia and Yorgen Fenech, the PN leader insisted he had no relation whatsoever with the murder suspect.

He said the leakage to the newspaper was an attempt to overshadow the damning findings by the National Audit Office on the Vitals hospitals deal.

“We are investing all this effort in an innocuous chat concerning a dinner that never happened when we should be investigating the chats between Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri to determine what business they were doing between them,” Delia said.

He also defended his decision to go to the police over the newspaper report, over what he claimed was an illegality.

“The chats can be false, manipulated, or leaked from a protected source… but irrespective of the illegality perpetrated, the chats say nothing. They could have been manipulated by people with an interest,” he insisted.