Some time ago Opposition leader Adrian Delia laid down the gauntlet in no uncertain terms and challenged those still-dissenting members of his parliamentary group to either come aboard his ‘New Way’ or face the inevitable.

That clearly does not seem to have worked judging by the experience of the last three days of the Egrant magisterial inquiry fallout.  In fact, since Sunday, what could have once been passed off as a hairline fracture within the party has since grown into a full-blown rift.

Since the last election of a new party leader in the wake of the last general election, the party has been split into two distinct factions that would clearly never see eye to eye: those backing the new leader Adrian Delia and those who have clearly been challenging his leadership qualities behind closed doors and, to a lesser extent, in public.

In the wake of Delia’s challenge some of those dissenters had publically endorsed the new leader, seeming to have made amends, but at the end of the day, those gestures appear to have been no more than eye candy.

Now push has truly come to shove and the gauntlet has well and truly been laid down.  In the wake of the Egrant inquiry, Delia has made his move to oust Busuttil permanently, but the only problem is that Busuttil and a growing number of Nationalist MPs who are backing him are having none of it.

The bitter infighting the party fell into during and after its leadership race now appears to have escalated quite quickly with Delia’s challenge to his predecessor, Simon Busuttil, to fall on his sword.

As such, and as matters currently stand, just about every political observer in the country is asking themselves whether the party has in fact reached a point of no return.

Today Delia is facing nothing short of an all-out revolt from within his own ranks after calling on Busuttil to shoulder political responsibility for having ‘assumed ownership’ of the Egrant story. 

But, on the other hand, those who had also so readily and vociferously jumped aboard the Egrant bandwagon should also face some flak, but somehow they are nowhere to be seen.  What happened to them?

There are people among the highest echelons of the party who had adopted the same stance as Busuttil, should they too not be made to face the music to which Busuttil is now being asked to dance?

What’s good for the goose, after all, is also good for the gander.

The writing is very clearly on the wall that the party is at a loose end, and that the fracture it has endured since Delia’s assumption of the helm has now developed into a full blown split, and one of the country’s two main political parties appears to be in its death throes as a result.

That, in itself, is a bad thing for democracy and the best thing a party in government could ever hope for: sitting back and watching your opposition self-destruct.

An Opposition facing  a government of the strength of the current one needs to be united of it is to stand any chance at all at any electoral poll, should this not happen, it would be a great pity for not only the party but also for the country itself.  The Opposition has a vital constitutional role to play and it must be able to fulfil that role to the best of its ability. 

It needs to keep the government in check, it needs to work with the government in a rational way on the policies with which it agrees and it must be ready at all times to present a strong, united front against the policies that it disagrees with.

But in order to do that, the Opposition needs to be unified, which it is not by any stretch of the imagination, and the longer this situation festers, the worse it will be for the country.

Gladly, this cannot go on forever and something will have to give eventually: it is crunch time for the Opposition and with the number of MPs rebelling to flank Busuttil against Delia, it appears it might be time to choose once again sometime soon.

What, exactly, that choice will be still remains to be seen.