The total sum allegedly collected by the Nationalist Party during its last fundraising marathon – about €620,000 ‒ raised eyebrows among thousands of people, including journalists considered quite friendly to the party, such as The Malta Independent.

Up to about one-and-a-half hours before the PN’s fundraising marathon ended, the total was about half of that raised by Labour. Labour’s marathon ended at 11pm. Then, suddenly, PN deputy leader Robert Arrigo and general secretary Clyde Puli came up with a moment of sheer magic. The first produced €147,000 and the other €56,000, plus another €18,000 said to have been collected by Pierre Portelli, who now heads the party media. Incidentally, these are the three closest officials to PN leader Adrian Delia.

To me and so many others, the ‘sheer magic’ consisted simply in the PN officials waiting to see how much Labour raised and then ‘cooking the books’ to show that the PN had collected a little more. They simply could not allow PN voters to see that many of their colleagues had decided not to donate money after Delia took over the party leadership, unless of course Arrigo had produced the money out of his very own deep pocket, which would have been in flagrant breach of the party-financing law.

The Malta Independent had asked for a breakdown of the amounts announced by Arrigo and Puli. The PN declined to give details. I wonder whether the Electoral Commission will be asking the political parties to submit a breakdown of the donations received to check whether the law governing the financing of political parties has been breached or not.

Arrigo has already revealed plans to hold yoga sessions, line-dancing evenings, film shows and holy Mass at the party headquarters in Pietà. I now expect him to announce the holding of lectures for all those who wish to become magicians. Of course, they would have to be members.