The Nationalist Party should have the courage to welcome back former activists and MPs, including Franco Debono, PN MP Hermann Schiavone said.

In a Facebook post reacting to a Times of Malta editorial, Schiavone said the strength lies in diversity.

Debono had left the PN in 2012 after voting with the Labour Opposition against the government's budget. His divergences with the PN were related to his proposals on justice and constitutional reform, which included party financing and the right to legal assistance, among others.

The move had led to the collapse of Lawrence Gonzi's government the following year.

Over the years, there have been calls for Debono to be allowed to join the party again, although some have still not 'forgiven' him for bringing down an almost uninterrupted 25-year PN rule.

Schiavone said diversity of thought is essential in a modern political party. "It does not matter if we do not always agree. Over the past three years I have learnt that it also does not matter if MPs sometimes criticise their party openly and vote according to their conscience."

During the last PN legislature, MPs like Franco Debono who voted against their own government had been criticised. This is also common practice in the House of Commons, but no one gets sacked from the party, he said.

"During this legislature, I have seen many of my colleagues speak out and vote differently to what our Whip would have asked. We should not take it against them. If the party wants to grow, we have to embrace people who are not 'yes men," he said.

Schiavone said the party should have the courage to readmit these MPs, whose behaviour in the past was only a reflection of the fact that they were ten years ahead in the way an MP should act.

A few months ago, PN Secretary General Francis Zammit Dimech had suggested that the party is open to welcoming Franco Debono back into its fold.

Zammit Dimech had said the party's doors should be open to all "genuine" people, including those who had disagreed with the party in the past.

Speaking on Indepth in 2017 PN Leader Adrian Delia said he did not believe Debono had a place in the PN. Two years later, however, Delia was pictured smiling with Debono and Mario de Marco in Valletta, in what was thought to be a sign that the PN Leader's views had changed.