I want Marlene Farrugia to know who the real Adrian Delia is
● New PN leader says he has not yet met with PD leader Marlene Farrugia
The newly-elected PN leader Adrian Delia is yet to meet with the leader of Partit Demokratiku Marlene Farrugia with whom the Nationalist Party signed a coalition before the last general election. Delia said he is enthusiastic to meet with Farrugia and described her as a colourful individual.
Speaking on INDEPTH, The Malta Independent’s online programme, Adrian Delia said that on a political level, he did not agree with the coalition. However, when asked how he would deal with this situation now that he has been elected leader, Delia said that he wants to meet Farrugia to try and understand her concerns.
“I am interested in meeting Farrugia, and when I do, I want her to understand who Adrian Delia really is. So far, I have met with various individuals who might have disliked me or not supported me in the leadership race, but who have now got to know me better after meeting with me.”
The PD leader has already stated that her party will not be giving up a parliamentary seat for Delia and she instead offered him her kitchen chair. Farrugia has also made her cause against Delia public on Facebook.
The PN leader said that the negotiations to have a sitting MP relinquish a parliamentary seat for him are ongoing and have intensified over recent days. Delia was not ready to commit on a deadline by which this parliamentary seat issue is resolved. Questioned by The Malta Independent news editor Rachel Attard, Delia said that Joseph Muscat had the luxury of almost three months to find an MP who would be willing to give his seat. “At this stage, the dates are not important. All I care about is having a serious process, not a hasty one. It would be very imprudent to come up with a date when negotiations are still ongoing,” he added.
“We have to understand that this is a very delicate process which involves an elected MP giving up his seat,” Delia said when pressed on the issue.
Media reports have suggested that Delia is finding it very hard to find a PN MP to concede his seat to the new leader. When asked about this, Delia said that the media reports were not always correct: “I know for sure that in certain cases, these MPs were approached before I spoke to them personally.”
Delia is confident that the issue will be resolved in time for him to address Parliament during the Opposition’s reply to the Budget Speech.
The new leader said he is holding regular meetings with former leader Simon Busuttil. Delia said that he has had the opportunity to meet up with him every day. During these meetings, the two had the opportunity to speak about various topics, including the party’s finances.
He said that since last Saturday, he held a “very good meeting” with the Karol Aquilina, the President of the PN Administrative Council and Shadow Minister for the Environment. “He met with me and came prepared to speak about the environment. We cleared the air for the first 15 minutes, then we took off and spoke about pressing issues.”
Delia said that he has a good working relationship with everyone, including Jason Azzopardi who has openly supported Chris Said and lashed out at Delia’s candidature. He said if it wasn’t the case, he would not have gone to court to support Simon Busuttil and Jason Azzopardi. The lawyer also explained that on Tuesday, he held an hour-long meeting with Chris Said. “I know for a fact that Chris has told his team that now it is time move on for the good of the party, and support the new leader.”
Delia was asked to mention three major priorities on which he wants to work on. He mentioned transport and said that the country needs to solve this issue as soon as possible as it is affecting people’s lives. “It has become a very serious problem. You cannot honour appointments, meetings, driving children to school is becoming impossible.” He said he is already analysing the documents on transport and studying them, and said the PN should have been more forceful with the government on this issue.
He then mentioned the elderly, saying that over a period of 10 years, the infrastructure will face a huge shock because of pensions. Then he mentioned the poor that are emerging nowadays and described the “time bomb” when the poor are facing new material poverty, such as internet connection or rent.
Delia was also questioned on the issue of migration. He said that he wants to take stock of the migration and integration issue. He said that the government needs to see where these migrants are coming from and if they are emigrating. “Integration, if planned properly, can enrich our society.”
The PN leader was reluctant to divulge any information on his preferences for Deputy Leadership and other major roles in the party. He said that it would not be right to weaken the democratic process by saying whether he favours one or the other. So far, Robert Arrigo and David Agius have expressed their interest the occupy the post of Deputy. Delia explained that originally, the plan was to have all major leadership elections concluded by February next year. However, there are plans in motion to have these posts filled by end of year. “We want the process to start soon so it ends by end of year. Then we can take a break for Christmas and start campaigning in January.”
January will also serve as a deadline for MEP candidates. Delia said he wants the process to start early so that candidates are trained and can campaign properly.
Asked about the difficult task of uniting the party, Delia said that there was a lot of progress made during these last three days. “The real people, those that really matter to the party, are united. The rest, those rude (psataz) people on Facebook don’t matter much.”
Referring to his personal financial situation, Delia said that his debt of €1 million will be paid off by the sale of shares he held in companies. He said a leader of the Opposition has every right to keep the shares and holdings in a company, but he chose to relinquish his involvement in the private sector: “This is a huge financial sacrifice. I’m sure the public can understand this.” He also commented on his tax arrears and insisted that they are pure administrative fees and he intends to pay them all regularly.
The full programme can be viewed on www.independent.com.mt