The PN has sunk deeper in the quagmire which claimed it a number of years ago, and "DeliaPN" will snuff out any life left to it, Marlene Farrugia, outgoing leader of the Democratic Party said today.
The PD is the PN's coalition partner in Forza Nazzjonali and its two MPs were elected on the Nationalist Party list.
Dr Farrugia was reacting to Facebook post by former AD leader Michael Briguglio who had urged the PD to cooperate with the PN by not standing in the way with a non-elected candidate with 100-odd votes should a PN candidate cede his or her seat.
The former Birkirkara FC president was elected party leader last Saturday.
She said the PN leadership election was "a disorganised, ill-timed, mangled attempt at applying a wider democratic process to elect the PN leader. Therefore the democratic credentials of the process where and are still in question".
The PN, she said, should have appointed an interim leader, renewed the party structures from local level upwards, embarked on a campaign to update and widen its membership base (being able to choose a future PM was an incentive to join), and then carried on with an elegant, exemplary leadership choice.
That would have opened the gates for other more suitable candidates to contest.
"As things happened, all party structures were firmly in the claws of a party official/ MP whose loyalty was clearly to one contender. A very sick PN was asked to make a life-saving/life-threatening choice while it was still delirious with sickness and numb with pain."
A very sick PN was asked to make a life-saving/life-threatening choice while it was still delirious with sickness and numb with pain
The PN, she said, should have been allowed to regain consciousness, given the blood transfusion it needed and properly strengthened, before its members were asked to choose.
She told Dr Briguglio:
"By that time, people like you, or Bernard Grech, both of whom were shoulder to shoulder with u, against all odds in the campaign for good governance, would have been eligible to contest, and the widened PN membership would have been given a real choice, in a democratic process properly used.
"Had it been yourself or Bernard Grech or any one else who can give hope to this country of ours, I would have been the first to offer to relinquish my Parliamentary seat in the name of a greater good I could actually believe in.
"As things stand, PN has sunk deeper in the quagmire which claimed it a number of years ago, and DeliaPN, will snuff out any life left to it.
"Therefore, because I am legally a PN MP, politically a PD MP, and historically a Forza Nazzjonali MP, I will abide by my duty to PN, to PD and to Forza Nazzjonali.
"The way forward for those who support good governance is clear. The solution is not to cover a debacle by embarking on another. The solution is to learn from one debacle to avoid another."
In his post, Dr Briguglio said that despite the current rhetoric, both the PN and PD needed 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 anitpathy 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."
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- Briguglio
But Dr Farrugia said that while the PN and PD needed to push forward an agenda based on good governance, that could not happen with Dr Delia as PN leader. "He simply does not have the credentials."
"If PD betrays its voters, who definitely chose it for its unrelenting struggle for good governance, If PD betrays its raison d'etre, If PD betrays its country, then, and then only will it be toast, as it would surely deserve to be."
"We will not be swept away by numbers, or by personal ambitions. PD, and what it will evolve into in the next few weeks, is the natural home for all Maltese and Gozitans who believe in good governance, and wish to be part of the positive change our country has been denied for too many years.
"We will take the Forza Nazzjonali to the next level."