Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi has been forced to backtrack on claims that former PN leader Adrian Delia had exchanged hundreds of messages with businessman Yorgen Fenech. 

Fenech is currently behind bars and is facing criminal proceedings after he was charged with being the mastermind behind the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

“Jason Azzopardi also declares that Adrian Delia is not in the pocket of any businessman, and is, therefore, a part of the fight against corruption without hindrance or compromise,” read a joint statement by the two MPs and published by the Nationalist Party this evening.  

“In this context, he also has no reason to think that the Nationalist party led by Adrian Delia, or Adrian Delia himself, did anything, or took any decision, for David Casa not to be elected as a Member of the European Parliament, and it does not transpire that hundreds of messages were exchanged between Adrian Delia and Yorgen Fenech.” 

Azzopardi had claimed last year that he was aware that Delia and Fenech had exchanged hundreds of messages and described Delia as “Yorgen Fenech’s friend”. The claim was made after excerpts of conversations between the former PN leader and Fenech were published by the Times of Malta. 

At the time, the revelations had precipitated yet another rebellion against Delia, with a majority of the parliamentary group declaring to the President that they no longer had faith in Delia to lead the Parliamentary Opposition. 

Delia was eventually forced to call a leadership election, which he lost to current leader Bernard Grech.

Azzopardi was one of Delia’s most vocal critics during his tenure as leader as is widely perceived as having led efforts to oust him. 

Tensions between the two resurfaced this week, after Azzopardi was awarded €1,000 in damages by a court over claims made by one of Delia’s canvassers, that he had met with a prostitute at Portomaso. 

Azzopardi uploaded a Facebook post announcing the verdict and claiming that Vincent Borg – the Delia loyalist who had made the claims – had been manipulated into doing so, ostensibly by Delia.

This prompted Delia into a public attack on Azzopardi over his claims about messages allegedly exchanged between himself and Fenech. 

PN leader Bernard Grech, speaking after a meeting with Azzopardi and Delia, said that the feud had been resolved and that both men would continue to work together for the good of the party.

What do you make of the PN’s statement?