PN MP David Stellini has officially resigned from the House of Parliament bemoaning the issues surrounding partisanship plaguing Malta’s political system.

“The Maltese system is not conducive to the politics of unity I embrace,” Stellini said during an interview with Malta Today.

“I came from Brussels to Malta in a bid to work for a politics of unity, that can give people results. But there is a group of people who want the politics of the arena, a battle between gladiators.”

“I call it the politics of symbiosis, because the large gladiator needs to have a smaller gladiator to fight against, and the smaller gladiator needs to pick a fight with the large opponent to keep its fans alive: the PN must be careful not to fall into this battle, because it will not win it,” he continued.

Stellini also pointed to the issues surrounding the current salary of MPs, which are the lowest in the entire EU, as a reason behind his resignation.

“Life as a part-time MP is hard: employers who do not want to be associated with politics will not employ MPs. Indeed, they told me they do not want to be tarnished by politics, something which to me is a noble pursuit.”

Stellini was first elected on the 13th District (Gozo) in 2017 through a casual election. He then ran as an MEP in this year’s election. However, he failed to meet the necessary quota to take a spot. It remains to be seen who will take his post, with a casual election now expected to take place.

He said that he will not be resigning as the president of PN’s administrative council and will wait for the outcome of this week’s local council elections.

“If activists wish that I resign from the PN administrative council, then I should follow suit… I think it is premature at this point, but we are days away from another electoral result.”

“I think a lot of people in 2017 said that Simon Busuttil had left the party leadership too hastily. So it is possible that such an immediate change is not always the best solution,” he said.

Stellini will now return to his post within the European People’s Party.

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Julian Bonnici

Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.