Looking back on these traumatic days, we can see the dramatic decline of Adrian Delia from Leader of the Opposition to 'kap sfiducjat'.
All through last weekend the President of the Republic sent for all members of the Opposition and asked each to declare a position on Adrian Delia. Two-thirds of the members said they no longer had trust in Delia.
This was confirmed by the President himself in some of the meetings he had. Then the President himself confirmed it in the long and pondered statement he issued on Monday evening.
Then, inexplicably, he decided against removing him from the Constitutional office of Leader of the Opposition. He used up three pages to argue why but he did not convince even one of those who had come to the conclusion Delia must go.
The three legal experts who had been advising those who want Delia to go, besides making public their advice came out strongly to argue the President is wrong.
No one knows who has been advising the President, though many names have been bandied about. At the end, the President is thus personally responsible for his ultimate decision which, he said, is in the interest of peace in the country.
In other words, the clause in the Constitution that speaks how a LotO is appointed and removed goes out of the window in the name of peace in the country.
Subsequent events are now making the President's anguished decision almost irrelevant.
On Tuesday the Nationalist Party's executive council meeting was also asked to vote in favour of against Delia and again voted against him.
Now it is being said there will be a meeting of the party's top body, the general council at which for the third time people will be asked if they want to see Delia at the head of the party. This time a negative vote will be definitive and no George Vella will save him.
This is all in the future, however, and reports have spoken of a rush of people registering or refreshing their membership. Perhaps someone has taken heed of Brian Hansford's leaked advice to the Delia faction to get the vote out.
The Delia faction, or should we say the Labour dirty tricks factory, has been hard at work dragging up any dirt they could on the 'kap nominat' Therese Comodini Cachia first about a voting mishap at the European Parliament involving that shibboleth called abortion (which led to an instant rebuttal by the ex-MEP) and some sort of issue regarding her accountant husband which had been picked up by none other than Daphne Caruana Galizia and subsequently cleared up.
Although it seems such dredging up is par for the course in Maltese politics, one cannot forget the issues dredged up, some by Daphne herself when Delia's name came up.
In that case, Delia had replied with bluster ('bicca blogger'), threats of libel cases (then unilaterally relinquished) and some of the issues are still all there.
Other than that, support for the PN has continued to plummet, his supporters have continued to decrease, to say nothing of the motley crew around him.
It may be irreverent to say this, but the great and the good within the party are definitely not on Delia's side. Having said this, I doubt if the anti-Delia statements by party long-timers like Lawrence Gonzi or Louis Galea help matters seeing they may be perceived as trying to hijack the post-Delia period if not to get their appointed heir in place.
Gonzi in particular should learn the lesson from his own history - the Nationalist Party began its long decline from the moment he was chosen as Eddie's heir and shot up to the top.
Those who plucked Delia from near anonymity to become the leader of a winning party after a series of defeats have now disappeared from sight, many licking their wounds. Their game-plan lies in tatters and the coming final vote may show the party's grass roots have found out the holes and gaps in it.
That does not mean however that the new basis of the party's appeal is already there. It isn't, not by a long chalk. A lot of hard work lies ahead.
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