The Nationalist Party has not been informed of a reported attempt to convene the general council and hold a vote of confidence in party leader Adrian Delia, a PN spokesperson told The Malta Independent yesterday. 

The Times of Malta yesterday reported that efforts were underway to collect the required number of signatures for the party to hold an extraordinary session of the general council that would include a vote of confidence in Delia. The move, the report said, comes after the PN’s poor showing in the European Parliament election, held over the weekend, which saw Labour win with a majority of over 42,000 votes.

The PN statute says that the general council – the party’s highest structure – can be convened if there is a written request by at least 150 members. The council is made up of some 1,300 members, which include representatives of all of the party’s branches and section committees.

Senior party sources told this newsroom yesterday that no signatures had reached the Nationalist Party’s headquarters so far, adding that rumours that signatures were being collected to force a vote of confidence in Adrian Delia might be just that – rumours.

And, replying to questions, the PN spokesperson said: “The party has not been informed of such motion and the statute of the party does not envisage the need for such a confirmation following the MEPs and local council elections. The party leader is only elected through the General Convention whose members are the thousands of party members.”

A defiant Delia told journalists on Sunday that, despite the dismal result he would stay on as party leader, stressing that his mandate is to lead the party until a general election. As had happened in the 2017 general election, when the PN under Simon Busuttil’s leadership had suffered a crushing defeat (Busuttil had resigned the following day, paving the way for a leadership election) PN agents at the counting hall on Sunday immediately launched into a debate on whether the leader should step down and make way for fresh faces.

Some said that, if Delia would not resign on his own steam, measures should be taken to force his resignation. Others argued that removing the leader after only a few months did not make any sense. 

But senior sources who spoke to this newspaper downplayed the Times’ report, saying that not a single signature had been delivered to Dar Centrali by yesterday afternoon.

“We did not receive any signatures and no one in here has been approached to sign anything,” one source said.

Even if signatures were being collected, the request would not necessarily be for a vote of confidence. “The statute says that there can be request for extraordinary sessions of the general council. This is no big deal. There might be a request, for example, for an analysis of the election result, or just to discuss the leadership without taking any votes. It could be anything,” the source added.

Another said this could be just a rumour, “like the ones about the signatures that were supposedly being collected for a declaration asking Adrian Delia to step down.”

Earlier this year there were reports that a number of MPs were trying to oust Delia but failed to gather the required number of signatures. The attempt came after Delia faced allegations of domestic violence, which he vehemently denied.

Several sources had confirmed that a high ranking PN official had been trying to collect signatures but the effort eventually fizzled out,even if it has been reported that the majority of MPs do not back the party leader.

In an interview two weeks ago, Adrian Delia told this newsroom that backing from within the parliamentary group was growing, adding that he had had “nothing to worry about for quite some time.”

He had also said, however, that the Parliamentary Group did not run the show. “Many people think that the Parliamentary Group is the Party. It is not. The Party has the administrative and executive committees – those are its organs as per statute. MPs are elected to discuss laws in Parliament. Yes, they are part of the Party but the leadership, the executive and administrative committees run, the day-to-day operations of the Party,” Delia had said.