Back in the political world, the 2017 general election was as unforgiving to the PN as the election four years before was, and Busuttil - together with Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami as deputy leaders - stepped down from the top of the party.

Rising to the top of the party instead was Adrian Delia - a self-avowed 'anti-establishment' candidate - who would ultimately be ousted from the party's top post in October 2020 following an internal revolt within his parliamentary group.

Asked whether he felt that, looking back, Delia had not been given the space to work and carrying out the reforms that he had wanted, de Marco said that Delia was "firmly in control of the party" but added that soon after he became leader, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated.

"Don't forget - Adrian and Daphne had tiffs during the leadership campaign, and suddenly whatever was exchanged between Daphne and Adrian earlier became something of a point of no reverse. There was no possibility of trying to make amends for whatever Adrian had said.  I think that probably affected his leadership," he said.

"I think there were a number of characters that didn't help.  Adrian has his own way of doing things, some others maybe wanted to do things in a different way," he said.

How the situation came to pass over the summer of 2020 was "totally mishandled internally," de Marco said.

He said that he and Lawrence Gonzi had tried to mediate between the two sides, recalling that he found himself in the middle of "what I saw as the party being torn apart from two sides".

"We tried on numerous occasions to talk sense into everyone, but it's not always easy to talk sense when people are set in their thoughts," he said.

"Looking back, am I happy with that moment?  Absolutely not," he said.

"Whoever came up with the description of the famous 18 Blue Heroes, I'm sorry was totally in bad taste - nobody was a hero back then. Nobody.  We all really betrayed what a party should ever be," he said.  The 'Blue Heroes' was the term given to the group of MPs who were pushing for Delia's removal as party leader.

Asked whether the party still suffers the consequences of this split in the eyes of the people, de Marco said that it definitely suffered for it in the 2022 general election: "People were extremely angry at the party."

"I would nearly say that in 2022, the people who voted for us did so because they really love the PN - because we probably didn't deserve any votes then for what we did," he added.

The party now, though, he said, has turned a fresh page - and he praised Delia for "having remained correct and loyal towards the party" throughout.

The rest of the interview about the various stages of Mario de Marco's career can be found in links below

Mario de Marco: 23 years as an MP, health challenges and when 'nobody was a hero' in the PN

Mario de Marco (2) 2003 to 2013: A decade in government and a PM hard done by history 

Mario de Marco (3) 2013: A big defeat, a run for party leadership, and no regrets 

2014 (4): Mario de Marco's 'biggest disappointment' in politics 

2015 (5): Mario de Marco's health challenges 

2026 (7) Mario de Marco on how he had to be hard on himself and what's next