The partner of former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil has hit out at his successor Adrian Delia, saying that Delia does not realise that the memorial for Daphne Caruana Galizia is a “protest against him (Delia) too”.

In her column for the Sunday Times of Malta, Kristina Chetcuti criticises her partner’s successor for mistaking “the protest memorial in Valletta for the grave of Caruana Galizia”, who was killed in a car bomb on 16 October, 2017. Last Sunday, Delia was confronted by one of Caruana Galizia’s sisters when he led a PN delegation to place a wreath at the memorial on the second anniversary of the journalist’s assassination. For the last two years, the Great Siege national monument has served as a memorial to the journalist.

In her column, Chetcuti says Delia went with a “bunch of men” – most of whom are PN MPs, colleagues of her partner – to pay their respects to Daphne. “He clearly does not realise that flowers and candles are … a sign of protest against injustice and corruption.”

“He (Delia) does not realise that the protest is against him too because a) he is not doing his job, which is that of opposing and b) because he’s got too much dodgy baggage to be able to do that job properly. If no one around him – Louis Galea please note – is telling him what’s going on outside the bubble, then they all really ought to find another hobby other than hogging crucial democratic roles”.

When Busuttil resigned as PN leader following the worst ever defeat in a national election, he had spoken against the candidacy of Delia as his successor. Delia had however been successful in his bid, but the relationship between the two has always been strained, with Delia at one point removing the good governance portfolio from Busuttil’s responsibility and calling upon Busuttil to suspend himself following the publication of the conclusions of the Egrant report.