Updated with PD statement on Monday at 9.30am
Mediation efforts aimed at mending the rift within the Nationalist Party in the aftermath of the Egrant inquiry findings are continuing, sources said on Saturday, with former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi the main intermediary between the two sides.
The turmoil in the PN was triggered by PN leader Adrian Delia’s decision to ask his predecessor, Simon Busuttil, to “suspend himself” from the PN parliamentary group after Magistrate Aaron Bugeja found no evidence linking the Prime Minister’s wife to the Panama company Egrant.
Dr Busuttil had made the Egrant claims – first highlighted by the late Daphne Caruana Galizia – a central part of the PN’s electoral strategy last year.
The former PN leader, who was also removed by Dr Delia as the party’s spokesman on good governance, refused to suspend himself from the PN parliamentary group, as was publicly supported by over a third of the PN’s MPs.
Sources said that the first reaction to Dr Gonzi’s mediation efforts from the Delia camp was “encouraging” but that there was still some way to go.
“We would like Dr Delia to stop publicly defending his decision regarding Dr Busuttil’s suspension like he did in a television interview on Thursday,” a supporter of Simon Busuttil said.
This division makes no sense and only serves Joseph Muscat
“We need confidence-building measures,” a source from the Busuttil faction said on Saturday.
“This division makes no sense and only serves Joseph Muscat and his government.”
PN MEP Francis Zammit Dimech and former PN deputy leader Tonio Borg are also mediating, but neither of them has yet been in contact with Dr Busuttil.
PD to PM: Do you really want a strong and united Opposition?
Partit Demokratiku was very sceptical about the prime minister's call for a strong and united Opposition, saying on Monday that it was more convenient for him to have one that he could control and outmanoeuvre.
"The Prime Minister's true interest is not having an Opposition off whom he can bounce ideas, since it is blatantly obvious that the Prime Minister's office wields all authority, while hiding contracts and excluding stakeholders from discussions, as well as ignoring feedback, advice or alternatives to destructive policies. Many suggestions have been offered and ignored, while crises continue to mount, and no effort is made to control the army of trolls daily insulting and denigrating anybody not agreeing blindly with government," it said, saying this was a strong argument for pluralism in politics.
Delia to sue Attorney General
Meanwhile Dr Delia said on Saturday that he will be suing the Attorney General after he failed to give him a full copy of the Egrant magisterial inquiry.
Dr Delia already filed a judicial protest against the AG earlier in the week, giving him 24 hours to provide the full report. But the protest was met with silence, prompting the Nationalist Party to accuse him of creating a political imbalance since the government was in possession of a copy.
“With every passing day we’re seeing an imbalance favouring the government and the Labour Party,” a PN statement said yesterday. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he intended to publish the entire inquiry, making sure its publication did not intrude upon the privacy of third parties or hinder investigations and possible proceedings.
In another development PN MEP David Casa condemned the “laughable attempt” to clear Pilatus Bank on the basis of the “part-published” Egrant inquiry.
Pilatus Bank’s claim that the magisterial inquiry cleared it of all wrongdoing is ridiculous and deplorable, the MEP claimed in a statement yesterday.
Pilatus Bank’s presence in Malta constituted a threat to Malta’s financial services industry and brought illicit funds to Malta and possibly the criminals that used them, Mr Casa said.