[WATCH] Dalli ‘would have accepted’ PN deputy leadership offer

John Dalli would have accepted to stand as PN deputy leader had he been asked to do so by former PN leader Lawrence Gonzi in 2004.

In a frank interview with MaltaToday, the former PN leadership contendor revealed that after coming second in the 2004 leadership contest, he was more than willing to form part of the PN leadership.

Asked whether he would have accepted an offer similar to the one new PN leader Simon Busuttil offered to the runner-up in this year's election Mario de Marco, Dalli said: "Exactly the contrary happened in 2004...that is what I can say right now...I will leave that to my autobiography one day..."

Pressed whether he would have such an offer, Dalli said: "I would have accepted...And they know I would have accepted. Gonzi knows I would have accepted."

The seasoned politician, a mainstay of consecutive Nationalist governments spanning over 20 years served in every Nationalist Cabinet between 1987 and 2004, however had suddenly found himself in the backbench after an acrimonious leadership contest in which he lost out to Lawrence Gonzi.

A few months after the PN leadership election, Dalli was asked to resign as foreign minister in 2004 after a private investigator's report alleging he accepted kickbacks on a government tender, was presented to Lawrence Gonzi.

The former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi had asked Dalli to resign before presenting the report, which proved to be false, to the Commissioner of Police for investigation.

After spending long months in political wilderness on the government's backbench, battling to clear his name, all allegations against him were proven false, by the auditor general and by the police.

The private investigator, Joe Zahra, was subsequently arraigned and sentenced to two years' incarceration for fabricating the report.

After admitting that accusations against Dalli had been disproved, Gonzi appointed Dalli as a personal consultant in 2007.

In 2008, Dalli was re-elected as MP appointed social policy and health minister. But tensions with Lawrence Gonzi continued until he was finally kicked upstairs to the post of European Commissioner in 2010.

He served as EU health commissioner until he was forced to resign on 16 October 2012 by European Commission president José Barroso. Dalli has always insisted that he was a victim of a coup by the tobacco lobby and various political interests in Brussels and Malta conspiring against him.

However, last week, Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit declared that there is no criminal evidence to arraign or accuse former EU health commissioner John Dalli on grounds of corruption or trading in influence over the allegations that he was aware of a €60 million bribery attempt by one of his political canvassers.

Read the full interview in tomorrow's printed edition of MaltaToday