The Nationalist Party has officially requested the Where’s Everybody studios to produce CCTV footage of the fight that erupted within the Xarabank audience last Friday, a PN spokesperson has confirmed.

Xarabank’s live broadcast of a panel discussion about the PN was interrupted last weekend after an argument had erupted within the audience. However, both political parties have since put out contrasting versions of events.

According to parliamentary secretary Silvio Schembri, who was on the panel, the fight was instigated by PN supporters, including one of Opposition leader Adrian Delia’s own security guards. To back up his argument, Schembri published a 90-second video of the fight in full swing, which shows how a PN supporter had single-handedly pushed a group of people onto the audience seats.

However, PN eyewitnesses insisted the fight was instigated by none other than Schembri’s own father John Schembri, the longstanding mayor of Ħal Luqa.

In a Facebook post, PN secretary-general Clyde Puli, who was present at the show, said that John Schembri instigated the fight after seeing his wife growing agitated by his side, possibly due to snide comments that were being aired at their son.

“Schembri turned around, stood up from his seat, ran up eight rows of seats and aggressively confronted an audience member,” Puli said. “The PL supporters and Silvio Schembri’s canvassers then followed Silvio’s father to the section where PN supporters were sitting down minding their own business. Had Silvio’s dad not assaulted a member of the audience, things never would have escalated the way they did.”

According to Puli, John Schembri then climbed down the stairs, while one of his son’s employees filmed the incident to make it seem as though he had nothing to do with the fight.

“I saw all this with my own eyes and I’m ready to repeat it under oath,” Puli said. “I’m convinced that Silvio Schembri saw the same thing and I wouldn’t have spoken about it had he remained quiet because I knew [John] is his father. However, trying to spin the truth into a lie is unacceptable.”

Yesterday, PN leader Adrian Delia insisted the PN supporters in the audience were only defending themselves from attacks by PL counterparts.

“The Labour Party’s media reported that a PN supporter started assaulting people, but this is a lie,” he said. “Labour exponents had insulted and attacked our people, and what did they expect? For us not to defend our people? Yes, we’ll speak out and make our voices heard and no one will shut us up.”

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]