MP and former PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami has warned that using social media to hurt the party rather then help it would be a mistake. 

The Malta Independent contacted Beppe Fenech Adami for a reaction to Saturday’s confidence vote, in which party leader Adrian Delia was backed by two thirds of PN councillors. Although he has not used social media platforms to criticize Delia, Fenech Adami has often been linked to the group of MPs that believed that the PN leader should shoulder responsibility for the recent electoral defeat and resign.

Attempts to get comments from other MPs who did not back Delia, including former party leader Simon Busuttil and MPs Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina, proved unsuccessful.

Fenech Adami said Saturday’s vote gave Delia a mandate to lead the party into the next general election. However, one must also take into account that a third of councillors did not back Delia, he said.

He said that the challenge Adrian Delia and everyone in the party, including the MPs, now faces is that despite the different opinions everyone needs to find his space and the opportunity to work in the party.

“I have no doubt that everyone who went to vote on Saturday thought that they were acting in the best interests of the party with their vote. The decision has now been taken, and everyone has the responsibility, in the shortest time possible, to make the PN a party that is a strong Opposition, but more importantly one that believes it can win the next general election.”

Fenech Adami believes that the PN’s target should be to win the next general election, not by right, but by persuading the majority of the people that the PN is significant alternative.

The MP said that, just like he has always done under previous leaders, he will continue working for the PN under Delia, and that he believes that the PN is the only alternative to the Labour Party.

Asked whether PN MPs should now stop attacking their party leader on social media, Fenech Adami clarified that he had never posted anything of the sort. He said, however, that social media is a modern reality, even in politics. All MPs should, he said, should be responsible about what they expose on social media.

“We will be making a mistake, if anyone, whoever it is, uses social media to instead of helping the PN, uses it to harm the PN.”