Saturday’s vote ‘a very clear message by the highest organ within Nationalist Party’ – Adrian Delia

The PN leadership contender who managed to get most of the PN councillors’ votes in the first round of the election for a new party leader, Adrian Delia, has said that that vote was a very clear message by the highest organ in the Nationalist Party.

Addressing a press conference yesterday at the PN club in Fleur de Lys, Dr Delia thanked all those who voted for him and the team behind his campaign for the sterling work. “We now have to plan ahead for the next round,” Delia said.

He said that he had already personally spoken with the other contenders, including the ones who got eliminated, Alex Perici Calscione and Frank Portelli. He said that so far, the outgoing PN leader Simon Busuttil had not communicated with him following the result. He explained that after the election, the four contenders met in a room waiting to be handed the official result.

“Our values are unique, our principles are strong. Councillors might have voted for change, but these two are unchanging.”

Accompanied by his wife and two PN MPs, Jean-Pierre and Kristy Debono, the PN leadership hopeful said that he will be kickstarting an internal discussion on who will be willing to relinquish a seat for him to be sworn in as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.

Asked what will he be doing to unite the party, Dr Delia said that internal lobbies are common in political parties, “but we need to recognise the historic relevance of this renewal in the party.”

Asked if he believes claims that the Labour Party is happy with his successful performance, Dr Delia said that it is not a bad thing to make the Labour Party happy. “I don’t like to speculate. We have a very long road ahead with the MEP and

Local Councils elections coming up, so I’m looking forward to getting to work.”

So far, Delia does not know what Simon Busuttil’s role within the party will be. Asked on whether he would be willing to step down if any of the allegations by Daphne Caruana Galizia are proven to be true in court, Dr Delia said that he did not need to entertain such a question because he will not be found guilty of anything, because he didn’t do anything wrong.

Commenting on the upcoming, second phase of the election, Dr Delia said that the 22,000 party members should not be treated as numbers. “I want every party member to understand my message and for each and every one of them to be our ambassador.”

Adrian Delia said that during these last two week of the campaign, he will be holding press conferences at different PN clubs.