1. Azzopardi said he wasn’t invited to a single NET programme or sent to a single TVM debate to represent the party between January 2021 and October 2021.

“Perhaps it was because, as an MP, I didn’t know how to speak or because I was a fool,” Azzopardi said sarcastically. “It could be that the people who were given media space twice a day and every week were just way more eloquent, intelligent or convincing than I was.”

2. Azzopardi said the PN leadership failed to stand up for him when he received a public death threat “from a known murderer” for doing his job effectively.

“No one from the PN leadership even sent me an SMS of solidarity with me. The threat led to certain security measures and words of condemnation from many, but not from the party or its leadership. In fact, they practically gave off the impression that they wouldn’t mind if something were to happen to me.”

3. Azzopardi recounted how former minister Carmelo Abela had accused him of being “in bed with criminals” during a debate with PN MP (back then a candidate) Mark Anthony Sammut on Xtra back in April 2021.

“Sammut never defended me, which means the PN allowed a minister who was accused of involvement in a hold-up to spread a lie about me and discredit me,” he said, suggesting district rivalry could have played a role in Sammut’s decision not to defend his name.

During the show, Abela had said Azzopardi was “in cahoots with criminals” to cook up a tale that he [Abela] had some part to play in the notorious 2010 attempted HSBC heist. Sammut retorted by saying that “half the Office of the Prime Minister has already spent time in jail” and telling Abela not to smear the PN with the government’s own wrongdoing.

Abela interpreted Sammut’s response as a defence of Azzopardi.

4. Azzopardi recounted how, as PN spokesperson for employment and industry, he had personally taken it upon himself to organise visits by Bernard Grech to Lufthansa Teknik and the Chamber of Commerce on May Day 2021.

However, he said the PN didn’t invite him to any of its May Day activities and that PN candidate (now MP) Ivan Castillo had even called him up to express embarrassment that he was going to accompany Grech to Lufthansa Teknik when Azzopardi had organised the trip.

He also said a Chamber of Commerce official had called him up to inquire about his absence from the event but that he “shamefully” invented an excuse to protect the PN’s name.

5. Azzopardi said he struggled to obtain a photo with Grech for usage on his election leaflet and that he had to wait for a taħt it-tinda event in Paola to get his moment.

“I’ve been contesting elections since 1996 and that was the first time this had happened to me.”

6. Azzopardi said that in May 2021, an unnamed person “from the PN’s strategy group” paid him a visit at home to ask him to resign and make way for a young candidate “who could win the party 15,000 votes”.

“He’s lucky I didn’t throw him out of the window that day,” Azzopardi recounted. “They asked me to resign – not because I did anything wrong but so that a youth can give them 15,000 more votes. Tell me if and how many votes we won since 2017 with new faces… to be clear, it is crucial for new candidates to contest every election but not by discrediting current MPs as doing that discredits the party’s own message.”

7. Azzopardi said that he experienced another dry media period between the end of January 2022 and the 2022 election, with the PN not inviting him to a single programme or press conference.

8. Azzopardi said that he recently found out that an unnamed PN MP had approached an unnamed PN official during the election campaign to tell him it was wrong of Grech not to treat all candidates equally at rallies.

“The MP said that [Grech] wasn’t shaking every candidate’s hands or embracing everyone at the taħt it-tinda events. The official asked who he was referring to and the MP said it’s obvious that Grech wasn’t skipping Jason Azzopardi. The official responded by tapping the MP on the shoulder and telling him it’s a shame the media hadn’t noticed.”

“Divide and conquer, that’s how he led.”

Azzopardi ended his bombshell statement by stating he is ready to swear an oath that all allegations are true and hinting that he will one day inform the public about “a meeting that took place with an ElectroGas director at Dar Ċentrali” last September.

What do you make of Jason Azzopardi’s latest statement?