PN leadership candidate Adrian Delia said today he has asked Bank of Valletta to provide a letter showing that he has bank accounts in his name.

“I have already sent an email. I have been a BOV client for the past 30 years. I was one of the very first students, when they had opened a branch on campus, to get my computer loan at the time. I have been a reputable client of theirs since.”

Asked when he would publish it, he said he is not the bank. "I wrote them an email and they will send it back. I don’t understand why journalists think that when you ask someone something, they give you a date when they will give it back. As soon as they give me…” At this point this newsroom said that there’s a time constraint given the upcoming election. 

"What we can do is I buy you a drink and pay by cheque,” he quipped. “These are stories being invented by one person (Daphne Caruana Galizia) out of the blues and are simply intended to divert attention from a political message. I have no problems with the bank, I have no financial problems. I never have and I never will.  The Nationalist Party has. Nobody is asking how much the PN owes, who made that debt and what it is governed by.”

Asked about the recent freemasonry allegations made by PN MP Karol Aquilina, he said that he does not have a position on freemasonry, other than what John F Kennedy once stated, “that secretive societies are not beneficial to our society, don’t have a place in our society.“

“Anything that is secretive in nature does not respect the values of a modern and transparent society, I have not ever had any associations with any secretive societies or masonry or lodge. I invite Karol Aquilina to come forward and take responsibility of the statements he made.”

Asked whether he was invited to meet with current PN leader Simon Busuttil or the executive since the first part of the election passed, he said: “in the first two weeks Simon Busuttil invited the four candidates to ascertain that we maintain a friendly leadership race.  He told us we would meet every week. We met twice and never again. I understand that Busuttil is busy campaigning with PN leadership contender Chris Said.”

During the actual press conference, Delia spoke about youth and sport. He spoke of how sport could be used to help youths keep away from drugs, and become better persons, and keep active.

He mentioned youth gangs in Malta, and said that sports could help with this, by keeping youths away from joining gangs, by making youths more whole.

He criticised the PL “who said that drugs are a personal choice. I don’t agree with that.” He said that it is not a personal choice, as families in our society also are affected, and so are their friends, and thus society is affected.

He spoke of the need for initiatives to promote youths, where there would be opportunities for sports, even abroad. “Malta does well in sport up until the age of 14. When we jump over that age group, even in tournaments, we don’t see the same results. Why, as the training through facilities that players get abroad are not present in Malta.”

Delia mentioned corruption in sport, and said that €70 million in illegal betting every season in Malta occurs. “Not because they are interested in Maltese sport, but because they see the low wages players earn, they see that they (the players) can quickly be victimised by foreign cartels who take Maltese sports on unregulated foreign gaming sites… This problem is also being seen in the U-21 national team. This is not only tied only to football, and is penetrating another sport.”

He committed to always fighting corruption. He said that in corruption, there will be zero tolerance. “We must not stop for a day from fighting corruption in any form.”