Maria Deguara is the latest PN MP to comment on the internal developments within the party, saying that “no one person whoever he is, is bigger than the party”.
Commenting to this newsroom, Deguara said that she will always remain loyal to the party and to what it stands for and that each member “has to act according to his conscience in the decisions he takes” whilst at the same time they must “respect and remain faithful to the expressed will of the voters”.
She added however that the issue that has developed between party leader Adrian Delia and former party leader Simon Busuttil “could have been handled in a more appropriate manner”.
Deguara is the latest to comment on the growing rift within the Nationalist Party following Delia’s decision to request Simon Busuttil to suspend himself from the parliamentary group in the wake of the publication of the conclusions of the Egrant inquiry, which found that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife are not the owners of a company opened in Panama. Busuttil, as Opposition Leader, had based the PN election campaign on the Daphne Caruana Galizia revelation, which now turned out to be untrue.
Earlier in the day, former PN leadership contender Chris Said commented on the matter, offering to act as mediator between the two factions.
This he did through a post on his Facebook page, where he noted that the inquiry about the Egrant case had not managed to determine to whom the company belongs to. However, Said explained, everybody knows who owns Hearnville and Tillgate and reminded of the €1 million that, according to the Panama Papers, had to pass through these secret companies which belonged to Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.
The PN’s three MEPs also made their stances known on Monday and Tuesday. David Casa, who on Monday leaked a FIAU report detailing an inquiry into Minister for Tourism Konrad Mizzi, spoke with confidence in favour of Simon Busuttil.
On her part, Metsola requested that a process to address this situation is initiated within party structures, to resolve the disagreements and different positions regarding “how best to fight the corruption and abuse that have become so rife under Joseph Muscat’s government”.
Francis Zammit Dimech meanwhile pledged his loyalty to the party and to working in favour of unifying the PN. Contacted by this newsroom for clarification on his statement, Zammit Dimech said that he has offered to mediate between Delia and Busuttil as well.
Simon Busuttil currently has the support of ten PN MPs, including former deputy leaders Mario De Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami along with notable figures such as Jason Azzopardi, Deputy Speaker Claudette Buttigieg, Therese Commodini Cachia and Karol Aquilina. The two Partit Demokratiku MPs, Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia have also both stated that they will support Busuttil if a motion of no confidence is put forward for the removal of Adrian Delia as leader of the opposition.
Busuttil’s camp will need the support of 16 MPs in total for such a motion to be put forward, as that would equate to a majority of opposition MPs. If that would be the case, then a motion can be tabled to the President of Malta in line with Article 90 of the Constitution asking for the revocation of the appointment of the leader of the opposition as he would no longer command the largest single group of opposition members.
This being said, a number of MPs have expressed their faith in Delia, with Robert Arrigo, Clyde Puli, Kristy Debono, David Agius, Hermann Schiavone, David Stellini and Mario Galea being amongst. Delia’s decision in suspending Busuttil also has the backing of the PN’s administrative council.
The only MPs who have yet to make their positions known at the time of writing are Frederick Azzopardi, Ivan Bartolo, Toni Bezzina, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Stephen Spiteri and Edwin Vassallo. Attempts to make contact with these MPs were unsuccessful at the time of writing.