Opposition Leader Adrian Delia was coy about whether he has the backing of the members of the PN, but noted that he has never faced any backlash from them to indicate a lack of support.
For her part, Therese Comodini Cachia, who has been named by the group of rebels in the party as being their favourite to take Delia’s place, was frugal in her reply, saying that she is looking forward to see the choice that will be made.
As the PN edges towards a General Convention, which will see the party’s tesserati vote – one way or the other – on Delia’s leadership, both Delia and Comodini Cachia were contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday and asked whether they felt that they commanded the support of the party’s members.
“It’s a very fundamental question that we have to discover when we go to that election”, Delia said, not indicating whether he thinks he has the support of the tesserati or not.
He said that he wanted to go to a vote within the party’s membership base because that is where he had his first contest to get elected.
“I wanted to go there specifically myself because I already had the first contest to win the party’s leadership, which was through both the general council and the general convention. Then a year ago I was confirmed with the general council, and now my decision to go to the tesserati is specifically to have a confirmation of that”, he said.
Asked again whether he had any feelings or indications on the level of support he commanded with the party’s grassroots, he said that at this stage the matter is far beyond feelings.
“I never had any issue, backlashes or indications that there wasn’t support. That was something which motivated me and pushed me forward”, he said.
“However now this decision will remove any space for misunderstanding or uncertainty, and we will have a vote in order to ascertain this. I think that it is something which will galvanise the party going forward because it is a formal decision”, he added.
In her answer, Comodini Cachia said that “together with the majority of my colleague MPs, we wanted to give the tesserati a chance to make their voice heard. The steps we have taken so far have all been in this direction and I look forward to the general council members voting in favour of this choice.”
The PN general council will meet next Friday after a compromise was reached during yet another marathon PN Executive meeting last Thursday.
That compromise will see two questions be posed to councillors, who will then vote on which of them will be posed to the party’s members in a general convention some three weeks later.
The questions would either see the tesserati vote on Delia’s leadership alone in what is effectively a confidence vote, or it would see them vote between Delia and other candidates who put their name forward in what would essentially become a leadership election.
The tesserati’s vote is the crux which, many PN members hope, would bring the latest party leadership saga to an end once and for all.
Delia has already lost the confidence of his parliamentary group – who voted 19 to 11 against him – and his executive – who voted 47-36 against him – but he has nonetheless held firm to the fact that he was elected by the party’s tesserati, meaning that he is obliged to them to see out his term.