[WATCH] Adrian Delia's impassioned plea to councillors: 'I sacrificed everything'

The embattled leader of the Nationalist Party, Adrian Delia, made an impassioned plea to party councillors not to go for a new leadership election, saying the cost was too high for the PN just a few years away from a general election.

In a speech at the PN headquarters with an almost inexistent audience due to COVID-19 restrictions, Delia said in a live broadcast of his speech that he had sacrificed his legal career and his own family to be able to lead the PN after he was elected in 2017.

PN councillors will be decide tomorrow whether paid-up members of the party should either vote in a new leadership election, or else vote in a confidence motion asking to reconfirm Delia or not.

Delia suffered two no-confidence motions at the hands of his own MPs, and then the executive committee of the PN.

Addressing party councillors, Delia insisted the vote will not be about him, but “between a PN of the few and a PN of hope.”

He said that those who left the party want to return, but want a different PN from that of 2013.

READ ALSO: Azzopardi challenges Delia to resign over Yorgen Fenech’s Whatsapp chats

“I tried uniting the party for the last three years, but we have to face the fact that the majority of the parliamentary group want to remove me,” he said.

He said that he will not bow down to intimidation tactics, wherever they come from.

“I face a corrupt and criminal government. They lied about me and my family. But I will continue to fight for what I truly believe in – a revitalised PN.”

“The ‘New Way’ which I promised you three years ago was never going to be easy,” Delia said.

The PN leader said that when he came in he was faced with the dire financial situation of the party, and now the media sector will be reaching a breakeven next year thanks to Deputy Leader Robert Arrigo.

“With your vote, I promise to breathe new life into the party with new people and new faces,” Delia said.

“More and more people are coming forward to contest on the PN ticket.”

We are once again at a crossroads – MZPN President

Party youth wing president Joseph Grech said that the party is at the cross roads.

“We have already been here. We either choose to go down the same route which did not work, or we take another which we know will get us to where we want to be,” he said.

Grech said the party needs a strong and credible leadership, if it is to face the corrupt Labour government.

“No one is bigger than the party,” he said.

The MZPN President also said that a leadership contest would be healthier for the PN.

“In a leadership contest we would have a choice of candidates ready to serve, ready to make the party credible.”