Who benefits? It is an old, central question – cui bono? – already asked by the ancient Romans, and which every policeman, lawyer or detective still faces when trying to identify a crime motive. Journalists ask the same thing about motives for political manoeuvres.

Two different camps of supporters have gathered around the two final candidates, Chris Said and Adrian Delia, competing for leadership of the Nationalist Party this Saturday. So, who benefits from these camps?

Here the motives are fairly obvious. Each camp is vying to elect the man who, according to them, is the best choice– to win the general election, to head an internal group of officials, to represent the party’s identity and values, to lead the country, and so forth. Many of them mainly want to win.

It stands to reason that [the PL] would hope for the weakest PN leader, to enable the Labour Party to remain in government for as long as possible

Ask the same question about PL-leaning observers of this leadership election, and you naturally expect quite a different answer. It stands to reason that they would hope for the weakest PN leader, to enable the Labour Party to remain in government for as long as possible. Again, they mainly want their team to win and the opposing team to lose.

Some prominent PL advocates have a distinct preference for Adrian Delia. This was already evident before the first round of the election. I have not sensed equal support for Chris Said from the PL front. So, let’s ask our intriguing question about political manoeuvres again. Cui bono? Who benefits here? (and, most importantly, how?)

Architect Robert Musumeci, vocal supporter of the PL’s ‘moviment’, has been incessantly parading his strong interest in Delia’s electoral success on social media. He challenges posts not favouring Delia. He posted my latest Sunday Times column, together with some others, on his Facebook page. Above them, he wrote that Delia is taking a great risk (qed jirriskja ‘big time’) if he does not remind people that these were the leading supporters (sostenituri ewlenin) of the latest PN general election campaigns. What melodramatic rubbish.

Musumeci’s statement is vaguely intimidating and completely unacceptable. I do not appreciate being associated with a ‘big time’ risk to the potential Leader of the Opposition, by a senior government advisor on Facebook.

In any case, how does Musumeci suggest that Delia approaches this perceived huge risk he is linking to certain newspaper columnists and journalists? What should he do about it?

petracdingli@gmail.com

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