‘I will kick people out’, Grech says in warning against further ‘Facebook theatrics’ after Delia and Azzopardi reconcile
PN leader Bernard Grech has warned that he will kick people out of the party if necessary, as he warned against any further “theatrics” by MPs on Facebook after Adrian Delia and Jason Azzopardi made up following their latest social media spat.
Grech was fielding questions from journalists outside the PN’s headquarters, minutes after a joint statement between former leader Adrian Delia and party MP Jason Azzopardi was published as a resolution to the feud between the two, after yet another spat on social media earlier this week.
The joint statement meant that a planned emergency meeting to discuss the issue was cancelled.
Asked by The Malta Independent what the consequences would be if, despite what is now in writing and supposedly resolved, had to rear its head again like it did this week, Grech said that he will take all the necessary decisions – which may include kicking people out of the party.
“I will take all the necessary decisions; including calling an executive meeting and kicking out anyone who should be kicked out. The time for going on Facebook to do these theatrics is over”, Grech warned.
“This is a serious party with serious MPs and serious candidates. We will move forward, and where it is necessary, I will take the decisions which need to be taken”, Grech said.
Asked what the point of calling an executive meeting was only to then publish a joint statement from the two concerned, Grech said that he is determined to strengthening the party and is ready to take any necessary decision for the party.
“I have no problem being hard with those whom I need to be hard with”, he said.
“The feud between Jason Azzopardi and Adrian Delia, today it is black on white that it is resolved, so we didn’t need the meeting to take place”, Grech told journalists.
Asked about the notion that
Grech had won his leadership role in part due to Azzopardi’s allegations against Delia, Grech said that he had taken his decisions on his own steam and merit and that nobody was pulling his string.
Asked what he had done on the allegations that Azzopardi put forward against Delia, Grech said that the question between the two has been resolved.
“We are in politics to work and to fight corruption, and today’s declaration is clear”, he said.
He said that it is clear that the two are ready to work together for the benefits and interests of the Nationalist Party.
The way forward, he said, is that people have to understand that they have to come together – despite whatever side they side with – to fight one common enemy, which is the corruption and the bare-faced theft being carried out by the Labour government.
The feud between Delia and Azzopardi was reignited earlier this week, after a post which Azzopardi uploaded on Tuesday, where he announced that he had won a libel case against former Delia canvasser Vincent Borg (known as Ċensu l-Iswed) and that he had forgiven him because he knew that he had been “used, deceived, and manipulated”, drew a furious reaction from Delia – who invited Azzopardi to sue him, and challenged him on a number of accusations he had made about him in the past.
The first point in the joint statement published by the party reads that there was no intention in Azzopardi’s post to refer or be understood to refer to Delia.
“Both Jason Azzopardi and Adrian Delia respectively recognise in each other politicians who are fully committed to fighting against corruption in public life, which has ravaged our country since the beginning of the Labour administration, with one vitiated contract after another”, the statement read.
In this context, the statement reads that Azzopardi recognises that Delia is singlehandedly fighting against the vitiated contract which granted three hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare in court.
By the same measure, the statement continues, Delia recognises that Azzopardi is at the forefront of the fight against corruption cases in Malta which are publicly uncovered, and is facing risks to himself as a result.
Azzopardi also declared in the statement that Adrian Delia “is not in any businessman’s pockets and fights corruption without any interference or compromise.”
In this context, the statement continues, there is no reason for Azzopardi to think that the PN led by Adrian Delia or Adrian Delia himself had done any action or taken any decision so that David Casa is not elected to the European Parliament, and that “it does not result that there are hundreds of messages between Yorgen Fenech and Adrian Delia.”
The statement reads that both Azzopardi and Delia are fully committed to, together with the rest of the PN, continue to fight without fear or favour so that the rule of law can return to the country, and so that equal justice can be faced by all in the courts.
“Adrian Delia and Jason Azzopardi are committed to continuing to dedicate their energy and capabilities in favour of the Nationalist Party, and so that the same Nationalist Party can emerge victorious in the next general election”, it concludes.