Damning survey results are not the Nationalist Party’s main concern, Opposition leader Adrian Delia has told Lovin Malta, insisting that the party remains focused on engineering a post-COVID-19 recovery strategy for the country.

“We are facing thousands of redundancies and the plight of the families losing their income is of paramount importance to us,” he said.

“We are determined to continue being a constructively critical opposition prepared to come up with concrete proposals for our country at a time which is so critical and always retaining the individual at the Centre of our politics”

“As to my main concerns, these remain my country, my party, and all our families. Certainly not myself,” he told Lovin Malta.

Malta Today’s latest survey uncovered that the PN’s support had dropped to 22.1%, falling behind a Labour Party who has surged to 51.9% during COVID-19 pandemic and despite the preceding political crisis.

PN MP Hermann Schiavone has even issued a warning that the PN could lose seven more parliamentary seats by the next general election, which scheduled for 2022. A Delia loyalist, Schiavone even insisted that the issue should be discussed within the parliamentary group.

“We have to see why, despite Robert Abela’s bad performance and the fact that people are starting to suffer, the PL has increased its tally by two points,” Schiavone wrote in a letter seen by Malta Today.

Delia would not reveal whether the issue has been raised within the parliamentary group, but said that “every “MP is always at freedom to express opinions and discuss any impending matters” during the meetings.

Delia has had to contend with internal party politics ever since announcing his candidature for the PN Leadership in 2017. A confrontational relationship with journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia failed to endear to a sizeable chunk of the PN’s supporters while a poor performance in the European and Local Council election did little to convince the public of Delia’s electability.

These issues are not necessarily new, with both his predecessors former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Simon Busuttil losing by record-breaking margins. Delia has started a process of reform for the PN. However, with even Delia conceding that the PN must brach itself for a snap election, the internal debate has begun on whether he can take the party forward.

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