Nationalist MPs Publicly Turn Against Adrian Delia After Busuttil Banishment
Adrian Delia at a protest demanding justice for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Opposition leader Adrian Delia is facing internal warfare within the Nationalist Party after he demanded the resignation of former leader Simon Busuttil.
PN MPs Beppe Fenech Adami, Mario de Marco, Jason Azzopardi, Claudette Buttigieg, Therese Comodini Cachia, Karol Aquilina, Marthese Portelli, Karl Gouder, Ryan Callus and Claudio Grech have so far taken to social media to write the same message: “#NotInMyName, #StrongerTogether”.
Using the same hashtag, MEP David Casa wrote: “We work together, win together, fight together, & when all else fails, take the fall together. Division only leads us down an insurmountable slope. Unity in our own diversity is what brought us this far and is what should take us forward. We are and always will be stronger together.”
The message is clearly aimed at Delia who suspended Busuttil from his shadow cabinet and demanded his resignation from the parliamentary group after a magisterial inquiry dismissed the Egrant story.
#notinmyname #strongertogether
— Mario de Marco (@TeamMDM) July 23, 2018
Delia argued that Busuttil must shoulder political responsibility due to his decision as Opposition leader to “make the Egrant story its own”, which included organising street protests and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
However, Busuttil refused to resign – accusing Delia of being in cahoots with Muscat and of closing an eye to corruption.
“It was my duty as Opposition leader to react to those serious allegations and to insist that the whole truth comes out, particularly since we had already known of two other Panama companies that were set up for Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri,” Busuttil said. “Did the Prime Minister expect the Opposition to keep its mouth shut in light of such serious allegations?”