The aftermath of last Sunday’s albeit partial publication of the Egrant inquiry will not be without its victims, and any casualties that will be suffered will very clearly be from the Opposition benches. 

Of that there can be little doubt.

So many positions have been left potentially untenable that the head spins.  The head of former opposition leader Simon Busuttil was the first to have been called for, by the Prime Minister and the new leader, Adrian Delia has stopped just short and asked his predecessor to stand aside, to suspend himself from his parliamentary duties, until Busuttil can figure out what, exactly, to do with himself.

That may not be a fair judgement considering the fact that there are still a number of magisterial inquiries still underway, including the mother of them all, the wider Panama Papers inquiry that the Prime Minister and his co-accused are so vehemently appealing.

That aside, after Sunday large swathes of the population have been baying for blood and, in Delia’s book, that blood needs to be Busuttil’s.  Delia, it should be noted, still appears to enjoy the all-out support of the majority of his MPs, and the party’s internal structures are fighting his corner.

Instead, Busuttil and his supporting MPs closed ranks and engaged in an open revolt against the leader who, truth be told, they never really accepted in the first place.

Delia’s first attempts at reconciliation between what are in essence two warring factions within the same army, appeared to have glossed over the problem festering within the party temporarily.  But the sheen quickly wore off on Sunday, as quick as the jaws of several opposition MPs dropped, as soon as Delia removed Busuttil from the shadow cabinet and called for Busuttil to suspend himself from parliamentary duties.

This was a situation that was inevitable and that was, at one point or another down the road, destined to come to a head.

The party could not, after all, persist in a situation in which the former leader overshadows the new leader in an area that is still close to the hearts of so many in the party. Busuttil, irrespective of the Egrant business, is still very much the party’s standard bearer of good governance – an area in which he campaigned so heavily and which he had based the party’s election campaign.

That situation was clearly untenable and, as such, so was Busuttil’s position in the party.

But then again, with close to half of the Opposition’s Members of Parliament having, vey publically, chosen to take Busuttil’s side, with their Facebook and Twitter hashtags and not-so-cryptic public statements, the leader is facing a revolt that could very well end up tearing the party asunder.

As such, it would appear that Delia, in his haste for someone to assume political accountability or a desire to throw Busuttil under the bus, may have misjudged the situation and in the process he could have very well rendered his own position untenable.

Had Delia not asked Busuttil to suspend himself, things may have been different.  Busuttil had not placed all his eggs in the Egrant basket, it should be recalled, and there many inquiries still underway, including the one that he himself had requested – that into the wider Panama Papers.

Now if that one were to fall through Busuttil’s position would certainly be wholly untenable.

The truth of the matter is that the likelihood of both factions ever seeing eye to eye is a remote prospect at best and as such there are two options remaining: the party splits in two, a constitutionally possible situation, or either Busuttil or Delia goes.

Dar Centrali, it appears isn’t big enough for the two of them.

Whether it is Delia’s or Busuttil’s position that is untenable will ultimately be for the party to work out but one thing for certain: for the country’s opposition party to be in such a rut is clearly the most untenable situation them all.