Only 7 of 15 PN MPs deny report they are willing to depose Delia

Only seven of fifteen Nationalist Party MPs named in a Labour newspaper report as being willing to vote against Adrian Delia in a vote of confidence have denied the allegations.

PL Sunday newspaper Kullhadd said 17 MPs – 15 from the PN and 2 from PD - were willing to depose Delia. The mentioned PN MPs were: Karol Aquilina, Frederick Azzopardi, Jason Azzopardi, Ivan Bartolo, Simon Busuttil, Ryan Callus, Therese Comodini Cachia, Maria Deguara, Beppe Fenech Adami, Karl Gauder, Claudio Grech, Marthese Portelli, Chris Said, David Stellini and Edwin Vassallo.

Following the publication of this story, some of the PN MPs mentioned in the report took to Facebook to dismiss the report.

Edwin Vassallo was quick to deny any such allegations and said that the Labour Party was trying to create spin stories about the Nationalist Party simply to divert attention on all the corruption surrounding the government.

New MP David Stellini also denied being one of the 15 who want to bring Delia down. He said that on the contrary, he is working to unite the party.

Chris Said, who had contested the leadership race against the Delia himself, denied the allegations through a Facebook post. He dubbed the article as an invented story.

MP Ivan Bartolo said that this is ‘yet another Super One lie’. He said he was loyal to Simon Busuttil and will be loyal to the current leader.

Claudio Grech and Ryan Callus also denied the allegations and said that the report was a lie.

Marthese Portelli said that she would be willing to propose a no confidence vote in ‘Joseph Muscat and Co.’

While these seven MPs dismissed the story as a lie, the rest failed to deny the Kulhadd allegations, at least on the social media, like their colleagues had done.

Some of these MPs are very active on the social media, and their lack of denial was highly noticeable. However some of them might have felt that the story was not even worth a reaction.

Kulhadd also pointed out that Partit Demokratiku MPs Godfrey and Marlene Farrugia have both publicly declared that they do not have faith in Adrian Delia as Leader of the Opposition.

Over the past weeks there have been several reports about rogue MPs who wish to depose Adrian Delia. It has been said that more than half of the PN parliamentary group would not support Delia if a confidence vote were to be called. However, despite all the reports, it seems that none of the MPs has had the courage to call for such a vote.

Delia, who became PN leader in September, has been struggling to unite the party behind him, and that problem is more apparent in the parliamentary group.

Speculations on the internal conflicts in the party have been going on ever since he first stepped into his new office.

Last month, Delia strengthened his grip on the party’s structures when 14 of his preferred candidates were elected to the party’s executive council and one of his closest MPs, Kristy Debono, was elected President of the General Council.

Addressing the general conference the following day, an invigorated Delia said he was ‘here to stay.’

But the absence of certain high profile MPs showed that despite the rhetoric, not all is fine within the PN’s ranks.