An emotional Robert Arrigo on Saturday urged Nationalist Party activists to unite behind party leader Adrian Delia warning that any further loss of ground could open the possibility of Labour winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
“In that case we would not even have to go to Parliament as Labour would be able to change the Constitution as it pleases,” he warned.
The PN deputy leader for party affairs made this appeal when addressing the party’s general council, which will come to a close on Sunday. Saturday’s session marked 25 years since the creation of local councils.
In his speech, Mr Arrigo described himself as a loyal MP who, by his own admission, had never been part of the party’s “inner circles” prior to his election as deputy leader six months ago.
In his address he dwelled on the need for the PN to unite. While insisting that the parliamentary group was united, he admitted that this was not the perception being given to outsiders.
Mr Arrigo took a dig at journalists as well as MPs, whom, he claimed were making use of fake Facebook profiles.
His comments were made in the wake of a remark which he had made a few weeks ago to an anonymous Facebook user in which he had declared that the PN would lose the third seat in next year’s MEP elections. He had singled out MPs Kristy Debono, Herman Schiavone and assistant general secretary Jean Pierre Debono when criticising his own party.
While not going into such details, Mr Arrigo said he was proud to have the courage to apologise when committing a mistake. At the same time he described himself as an outspoken person, saying he would rather call a spade a spade, rather than be “fake”.
The PN deputy leader also spoke on his relationship with Dr Delia.
“It took me long to accept you as it is hard to win my trust. But you lay your cards on the table and the evidence you produced convinced me,” Mr Arrigo said.
His remark was made in the wake of the saga surrounding the PN leader’s income tax arrears. While a few weeks ago Dr Delia announced he had paid his outstanding €50,000 bill, questions were then raised on the source of the funds to settle the bill. In this respect, the PN deputy leader insisted that no party funds had been used for such purpose.
Pitching his address to those within the party who still harboured doubts about Dr Delia, Mr Arrigo urged them to face the leader directly.
“This is what I did and he quelled by doubts,” he said.
While not mentioning allegations that prior to his venture in politics, Dr Delia had made earnings from a London-based prostitution ring, the PN deputy leader warned against taking as plain truth everything which is written on Facebook or blogs.
He noted that the PN had suffered successive landslide defeats since the advent of social media and blogs.
The prostitution ring allegations were made by the late Daphne Caruana Galizia during Dr Delia’s leadership campaign. The PN leader had denied the claims.