Mario Galea, one of the few remaining MPs backing PN Leader Adrian Delia, believes the party still could win the next general election, despite the two devastating confidence votes in Delia’s leadership.

“I am convinced we have a fighting chance with Adrian Delia as PN leader and the government corruption being revealed,” Galea (22:20) told the press shortly after Delia’s own address after the confidence vote.

Galea, who seemed to have been locked out of the PN Headquarters after Delia’s exit from the building, said that the PN leader has already managed to get the Egrant report published and would continue revealing more corruption scandals.

After an almost seven-hour executive council meeting, 47 members voted against Delia, while 36 voted in favour of him and one abstained. However, Delia insisted that he had no intention of resigning, saying that the vote was simply a declaration.

Last week, Delia also lost a vote in the PN parliamentary group. Galea conceded that the internal opposition has “not made it easy” to win the next election, but insisted that the power to remove Delia should remain with the paid-up members (tesserati).

“This was introduced during Simon Busuttil’s tenure,” Galea said.

What happens next is all up in the air. Delia has insisted that according to party statute the general council, the organ which technically has the power to remove him, cannot have a confidence vote for two years once a similar vote is taken. A vote was taken a year ago in the wake of the MEP and local council elections, which Delia won decisively.

A leadership election could still be called by the general council. However, it would need another executive council meeting to convene the general council.