Apathy Has Replaced Infighting Within PN, ‘Brutally Honest’ Adrian Delia Admits In New Interview
PN MP and former leader Adrian Delia has warned that the infighting which characterised the party during his tenure has been replaced by a wide sense of apathy.
Delia, who served as PN leader between 2017 and 2020, spoke out during an interview with Jon Mallia on his podcast show Il-Podcast ta’ Jon, the first part of which is available to Patreon subscribers.
His time in charge of the party was marked by serious infighting, with MPs and activists regularly going after each other’s throats in public.
Besides an acrimonious leadership campaign, Delia also faced a confidence vote after the 2019 MEP election campaign as well as a fresh leadership election in 2020, which he lost to current leader Bernard Grech.
Questioned whether the infighting has stopped, Delia offered a frank response.
“Weirdly, I think that it has [stopped], but sadly it has not been substituted by cohesion and creative energy,” he said. “I’m not saying there is no creativity but there is unfortunately also a sense of apathy, which saddens me.”
“Being brutally honest, watching the PN under Delia’s time was like watching a war film. [Something happened] everyday! Nowadays it’s like watching scenery – it’s peaceful but not much else. Aggression has been substituted by apathy.”
Delia had different criticism for the Labour Party, which avoided internal turbulence and infighting during its 2020 leadership election, which saw Robert Abela succeed Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister.
“Wasn’t there any pain, internal fighting and blood drawn when the spoils are so much larger?” he questioned.
Prime Minister Robert Abela
“There was so much enthusiasm in the fight for someone to become leader of a party [the PN] that had suffered one electoral trashing after another, however not for such a huge and wealthy party [the PL].”
“One would imagine a leadership election in the PL should be even more combative unless there’s shut-up money. I’m not going to give you the portfolio you wanted, but to avoid the revolution the Opposition Leader faced, I will give you a €20,000 consultancy.”
“The Westminster system requires the presence of government backbenchers to keep ministers in check too, including in Parliament. However, the Muscat government compensated every PL backbencher, which means they couldn’t keep government in check as they had become part of the executive against payment.”
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