No Indepth this week as Adrian Delia refuses to be questioned on PN crisis

There will be no Indepth interview this week since PN Leader Adrian Delia, after having originally confirmed his participation, said he would not be interviewed on the PN situation.

Last week, Delia accepted to be interviewed on The Malta Independent’s weekly online discussion programme, and a slot was booked with the recording studio for Friday morning. A few hours before the interview was set to take place, this newsroom was informed that Delia could not make it because of health reasons.

Another slot was booked for yesterday. However, on Tuesday, a spokesperson said Delia would only come for the interview if it focused on “ongoing issues,” namely corruption, the police force scandal and the hospitals’ privatisation deal.

Since this newsroom wanted to quiz Delia about the ongoing situation within the Nationalist Party – a subject which we feel is also of great importance – we decided not to go ahead with the interview.

Over the past days, Delia has participated in a number of televised interviews on the PN situation.

Delia has been facing pressure to resign since the publication of a MaltaToday survey, a few weeks back, that showed that the PN Leader’s trust rating has plummeted to 13.5%.

It has been claimed that Delia has lost the support of more than half of his own Parliamentary Group, and that a number of MPs were planning to ask President George Vella to remove Delia from Opposition Leader.

Delia has also faced calls to step down from his MPs during a recent Parliamentary Group meeting, and from PN stalwart Louis Galea, who is leading a party reform. Galea had warned that only a new leadership team could lead the PN into the much needed reform.

The party has also been rocked by the resignations of Deputy Leader Robert Arrigo, Secretary General Clyde Puli and General Council President Kristy Debono.

Despite all this, Delia has insisted that, should he resign, he would be betraying the will of the party’s tesserati (paid-up members). He declared that he will lead the party into the 2022 general election.

Since then, a new MaltaToday survey has found that 56% of PN tesserati do not think that Delia should step down, while 33% believe he should resign.