The Nationalist party needed to find a way to come together as it could only succeed in its quest for good governance if it united under one voice, party leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday.
Addressing supporters at the Qormi band club, Dr Delia said that it would be unwise to ignore the challenges that arose within a party when people had different opinions.
Dismissing rumours of a coup, he welcomed differences of opinion but said “we need to find a way to come together if we believe that the Nationalist party is the best party to challenge the government and the lack of rule of law”.
He also spoke on last week’s IVF motion, which saw six Nationalist MPs avoiding a parliamentary vote which would have denied same-sex couples leave for IVF treatment, after they were prevented from voting according to their conscience by their party.
Addressing the controversy, Dr Delia continued to tout the legalistic argument of the motion, insisting that the move sought to highlight incompatibilities in the definition of "prospective parents" between the legal notice and the 2012 Embryo Protection Act.
“It is a good thing when science can help couples who can’t have children,” Dr Delia said, insisting that the party was not against the government helping infertile women or lesbian couples.
Addressing good governance and a corrupt government
The PN leader said that the state continuously attempted to hide shady dealings.
The government lacked a long-term plan as the Prime Minister, who had campaigned to lead for just 10 years, did not care about what would happen to the country after his last four years as leader.
“He only cares about selling his home country,” Dr Delia insisted.
He also lambasted the IIP scheme, saying that the government was willing to sell the country’s sovereignty and identity.
Criticism directed at the government, he said, was not aimed at tarnishing Malta’s reputation and was not being used as political leverage, he continued. “Criticism comes out of love for the country,” he said.
He referred to statistics which showed that a quarter of Maltese children remained at risk of poverty and said this was in the same year that Malta was experiencing a great surplus. This, he said, showed that the surplus was not addressing everyone’s needs.
If a corrupt government can create a surplus, imagine what a clean government can do, Dr Delia said.
Clyde Puli gives his first address as general secretary
In his first address as general secretary, Clyde Puli said the PN faced existential, political, and financial challenges. It needed to “do some soul-searching” to reaffirm the identity of the party.
His mission as general secretary was to rebuild the structures of the party as an Opposition which could strongly challenge the state.
“We won’t be selling clubs when we don’t need to,” Dr Puli assured the crowds. But the party would be honouring contractual deals that it was bound by.
“It is true that we have financial problems, but we never stole property like Labour did with the Australia Hall,” he said.
The Labour government “stole 30 properties” from Maltese families to use them as party clubs, Dr Puli insisted.
“This is not the way we operate,” he continued.