PN MP Adrian Delia, a prospective candidate for the leadership of the Nationalist Party, has hit back at the Labour Party over statements its representatives had made, where they described the Nationalist Party as being in "chaos".

Prime Minister Robert Abela and Minister for Culture, Lands and Local Government Owen Bonnici have both, for instance, referred to the "chaos" within the PN in statements they have made.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, it was pointed out to Delia that this leadership race will lead to the fourth leadership change within the party in 12 years. Asked whether he agrees with the PL's description of the situation within the PN as "chaos", Delia said that "if the Labour Party is now the party that describes change as 'chaos', then it means that it has become the party of the status quo".

"It means that it is not true that the PL always wants progress and change and to move forward. They need to decide what they want," he said.

Delia said that he does not worry much about what the PL says.

He mentioned that in the past the PN chose to keep the Leader of the Opposition for a number of years, mentioning Eddie Fenech Adami as an example, who was elected as Opposition Leader in the late 1970s but became Prime Minister in 1987. "He spent around nine years as Opposition Leader. So it didn't happen overnight," Delia said, adding that at the time the party remained behind that leader, remained consistent in its belief that he was the person for the job.

"It looks like the PN of today had more urgency to see that it again becomes a winning party and I understand that," he said. "In many circumstances if you are not seeing results, you would want change." What he believes brought about this change was surveys.

"In the past we would measure once every five years, more recently because of the MEP and local council elections we had the opportunity to measure more frequently. Nowadays surveys are measuring every two or three months, so pressure mounts on whoever is leading and awareness among the people increases. We are more engaged as a society, and that is the reality.

"The most important thing for me is not how many times the PN leader changes, but that the PN unites behind its leader, that we would not have, like in the Labour Party, leaders who are removed because of scandals that rock the country. It's better to change the leader of my party three times because the people made a choice, rather than having to change the leader, or that the leader has to leave, because they are voted the most corrupt person in the world."

Delia is one of two PN MPs who have submitted their interest in contesting for the PN leadership. The other candidate is PN MP Alex Borg. The party is currently carrying out the due diligence process on both prospective candidates.

'I proved that I am someone who can be trusted'

Delia is a former leader of the Nationalist Party, however his original run saw the party fracture with internal problems. He had not managed to close the gap to the PL at the time. The PN MP said that he had not done a full term as leader of the party, adding that he did not manage to do what he had in mind to take the PN to the general election, in response to what he believes would be different this time round. What changed, he said, was that at the time he was an outsider in the party, "and it was the first time that there was a candidate for the leadership election who was going to be chosen by members", he added, mentioning that there was scepticism, reluctance and also suspicion by some coming from the outside. But he said that the tesserati strongly wanted someone from the outside at the time.

He stated that he has continued working within the PN for the past eight years, even after stepping down as party leader, choosing to remain loyal to the party - a commitment he demonstrated through his actions, "fighting the fights against injustice and wrongdoing, fighting to bring back the three hospitals, working with my colleagues. I believe I proved that I am someone who can be trusted. I work very well with all my colleague MPs, and I thank them because they do tremendous work with nearly no resources except their own and those who voluntarily help them".

"Today, I feel there is no hesitation and no faction within the party that would not be pleased with my selection. I have commitments, even directly from those who were not in favour of me back then, who strongly want to work with me going forward."

One issue that PN Leader Bernard Grech faced is that his trust ratings were nowhere near those of Prime Minister Abela. Delia, during his time as leader, had the same problem. As for why he believes people will have more trust in him this time round, Delia said that he is tried and tested, has managed to prove that his resilience and perseverance brings results, and managed to show his loyalty to the party and the country. "If at the time I was trying to act but had certain internal turmoil, which today there isn't and I know that there wouldn't be, then that is a different case. If you are moving forward but have some keeping you back, then you can only make small advances. If you are moving forward and everyone is pushing with you, then many advances can be made."

In terms of being measured against Robert Abela, he said that Abela is "already showing cracks" in his leadership, and that "U-turns are choices in his natural direction. He is already showing that his vision for the country is burdened by the interests of his restricted internal circles and not the wellbeing and better quality of the life of citizens".

While responding to a question regarding how he would attract more people to the party when people seem happy with the status quo, Delia said that people are not content.

He said that people choose to change their vote because they are not happy. "I know, from meeting many people, that people are not happy. Nationalists aren't content because they want to have their party in government, Labourites are not content as they feel betrayed. The Maltese in general aren't content because the country is not moving forward. There is dirt, overpopulation, the lowest quality tourists, people are getting annoyed. We also have an energy problem, in terms of production but more importantly in terms of distribution. The environment is trampled over all the time, we have problems in the transport sector, in the healthcare sector. I feel that the party in government is no longer the party that people are gravitating naturally to. People are fed up (with the situation) and are looking towards, and waiting for the PN to be the alternative government," he said.

Told that surveys show a massive gap between the PL and PN, he mentioned the MEP election result, but also the need to look at trends and not single surveys. "There were times the polls were going well, and they again saw a dip, and I am not really contesting that, but what we know for sure is that there are major fluctuations. Soon after the historic Vitals case win, the PN had done very well in the polls at that time," he said, as one example.

"The middle section of voters is growing so much, that when there are particular issues in the country people are reacting to them," he said. "We know that there is a large group of people in the middle, which if you measure by the polls is between 80,000 to 100,000, who will make the difference in the coming general election. That is the opportunity and the challenge for the PN, and we need to win the trust of the people consistently, to show that we will be the natural choice for them."

As for why the PN should elect him over his opponent in the leadership race, Delia said that the choice is up to the tesserati. The main reason Delia "accepted this responsibility, at this moment" to contest, he said, "was that a year-and-a-half away from a general election, the PN needs to have someone who has experience, the understanding of how a party should be led" and who has resilience and perseverance, he said. There isn't a long time for preparation for the next election, he continued, adding that the party needs to "hit the ground running".

The pact

There were reports of a pact between the two prospective contenders, that if one of them were to contest, the other wouldn't. Delia had previously confirmed there was, while Borg had denied it. Asked who is lying, Delia said: "I wouldn't want to judge because it is not my place. I wouldn't even call it a pact, but an agreement. So I think it is not the case to continue speaking about what happened. My intention was for us to be a team, we both have our fortes, abilities and I still believe that, and I hope that after this internal race concludes, in reality we will be working together to take the PN to where it really deserves to be."

The PN is at its strongest when it has a cause to fight for, such as when it had independence and joining the EU. Asked what the next PN's cause should be, he said that today there is a government with no vision. He said it is the responsibility of the PN to provide that vision. Told that the government just launched the Vision 2050 document, he questioned it. "For example, environmentally, are we going to make a revolution? I'm not talking about €700 million to Project Green to find a field and use 70% of the cost to create cement and concrete in what are meant to be the gardens we are creating. But rather that the environment no longer remains the price for development, and that the environment be placed at the centre of our economic growth."

Delia also addressed the issue of overpopulation, noting that Malta has the highest population density in Europe, which he said is causing stress on infrastructure, energy, transport, and other services. When asked about the PN's vision, he said it should focus on transforming the economic model "in a complete way" and also spoke of the need to change the education model "so that youths will be the thinkers of tomorrow, so that they change tomorrow's destiny".

"We want youths to, today, make a difference. Change your future today. So our education system needs to lead to that kind of student, stakeholder in the revolution that needs to take place."

He also spoke about the country's current lack of vision when it comes to Artificial Intelligence. "We have not understood the social and demographic change it can bring. We have a government trying to grow the economy by importing cheap labour, growing the economy by increasing the number of people, when we are literally on the ridge of an AI revolution that would not depend on people. So instead of investing in AI understanding and education and how to harness the technology of today, we are investing in the opposite."

Party finances

Regarding the finances of the party, while again pledging that he would publish the party's accounts if elected leader, he does not know the current debt figures. Responding to a question as to how radical he plans to be to address the financial situation in the party, he said he can only talk about the numbers he had seen and published, back when he was leader.

He said that while he was leader, the party's accounts were always published, and that there was debt.

"Three principal things I had done, which weren't radical but were logical, was to decrease the cost of our media house, which was substantial. In three years we had reached the stage to make it break even."

"The second was the high interest rate the PN had on its debt, which I had practically halved. The third was to start increasing the party's income through rents." He said that the party's properties and clubs could continue to be better used and managed and bring in substantial rent. He said these decisions had already started to bear fruit and that at the time the debt was already substantially reducing. He said he does not know the figures over the past five years, but said that when he sees the current figures, if things remained the same, he will continue implementing what he had started.

Delia said that the debt when he was leader was roughly around €24 million, but did not have the specific amount now. "What is sure is that the programme we had at the time was spread over a number of years, seven years was the first phase, that we could have reached."

As for whether the party's debt mainly comes from the party's political operations, media link or other companies, he said he does not know today, but said that when he was leader the party itself was not losing money. "The party's media was losing money, but we had also fixed that."

"The Labour Party tries to use this to attack the PN saying it is not capable of managing finances as we have a lot of debt. It is not true as the Labour Party also has big debt, with the difference that Labour has more property because it stole it."