‘Coalition sceptic’ Delia to meet Marlene Farrugia, after holiday

The Democratic Party’s leader Marlene Farrugia has said she will be meeting the new PN leader Adrian Delia on the 26th September.

With Farrugia currently on vacation, Delia is busy trying to secure himself a route inside the House of Representatives, that necessitates the resignation of an MP.

“Delia asked for a meeting,” Farrugia told MaltaToday. “We will oblige when we return [from overseas] around the 26th. The PD executive unanimously decided to instruct candidates to contest any by-election on their district should it come up.”

The new PN leader is finding it hard to convince those Nationalist MPs elected to the House by casual election, whose resignation would provide him a painless co-option in parliament.

After having rebuffed the Forza Nazzjonali coalition pact that Simon Busuttil brokered with the PD, Marlene Farrugia has now declared that all PD candidates will  contest any casual election triggered automatically by the resignation of any other Nationalist MP.

“PD will not abscond from its duty to the electorate, which gave it two seats on its stand for good governance apart from other issues,” Farrugia said. Her partner and other MP Godrey Farrugia was himself elected by casual election after PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami vacated his second constituency seat on the seventh district.

“Delia-PN does not have the credentials to carry on where we left off as Forza Nazzjonali,” Farrugia said referring to the coalition’s good governance plank. “This overarching national issue should underpin any ‘new’ way of doing politics.”

The PD contested in the name of the ‘Forza Nazzjonali’ coalition, on the PN ticket. Delia’s backers are hoping to reach an agreement with leading candidates for a casual election, to resign immediately and allow Delia to be co-opted to the House.

A differing opinion came from the Michael Briguglio, the former Green Party leader who is now a PN member and was an active campaigner for Forza Nazzjonali.

“Despite the current rhetoric, both PN and PD need each other… I think that Marlene Farrugia will commit political suicide if she keeps a non-elected candidate with an odd 100 votes to block Delia, who was elected as PN leader in the most democratic way possible. I hereby advise Marlene not to put antipathy towards Delia before the democratic process in PN. As I said, PN has a legal way out. If it uses it, PD will be toast.”