Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said that he will sack anyone who taunted outgoing MP Mario Galea with his medical condition.

Grech was reacting to a report in which Galea told MaltaToday that people close to the leadership "called out my mental health".

"I respect Mario Galea’s decision.  If Mario shows me one single proof that anyone of my team taunted him with his medical condition I will sack him immediately," Grech said in reaction. 

"Furthermore I have to clarify that Mario never complained to me about any specific incident. I am focused on regenerating the party. I never asked anyone to step down but I made it clear to all that we need to encourage a new generation at PN," Grech said.

Galea said today that there was no consensus about the withdrawal of his candidacy.

“They made my life hell,” he told MaltaToday, with obvious reference to the top party echelons.

On Monday, Galea announced he will not be contesting, along with three other MPs, Kristy Debono, Clyde Puli and Claudio Grech, all of whom will no longer be on the ballot sheet.

Galea was reacting to a suggestion by Grech yesterday evening in Valletta that the decision by four MPs to step aside and make way for new blood in the party was borne out of persuasion and consensus.

“It’s not true he told us to resign. I had already prepared my campaign. I took photos at my district and had already begun home visits,” he told MaltaToday when contacted on Tuesday morning.

Bernard Grech said Claudio's decision was borne out of persuasion that the PN needed to regenerate itself. The PN leader made a brief mention of the earlier resignations, insisting that even Puli, Galea and Debono understood the need for regeneration within the party.

But Galea has rejected Grech's claims. “It’s completely not true,” he told MaltaToday. “On Sunday evening, I received calls from the party headquarters to attend the press conference on Monday.”

Asked for the reason behind his decision to withdraw his candidature, Galea said people close to the party leadership made his life “hell”.

“People close to the leadership also called out my mental health,” Galea said.

“I was actively campaigning, but now it’s too much, and I felt I needed to get out,” he said.

Galea, 59, was elected for the first time to parliament in 1992 on the 3rd District. In 1996 he failed to retain his seat but was elected again in 1998 and every other election after that.