The Nationalist parliamentary group has not met in almost two months and no date has been set yet to debate the ongoing crisis triggered by the latest disastrous electoral results, this newspaper was told.
The situation was further compounded by the controversy which erupted over the co-option of an MP to succeed David Stellini, who resigned last week.
Sources said the Nationalist MPs last met on April 15, a few weeks before the official start of the electoral campaign.
Contacted by the Times of Malta, PN whip Robert Cutajar declined to comment.
According to the PN statute, the parliamentary group must meet at least once a month or upon the request of the party leader.
However, there is also a proviso under which it must convene if a formal request is made by at least a third of MPs.
Despite having been at the helm since September 2017, Adrian Delia is yet to win over a significant chunk of his own parliamentary group who have privately expressed doubts about Dr Delia both way back during the leadership campaign and, then, when he faced allegations on his personal finances and of having been involved in money-laundering activities more than a decade before his venture into politics.
He has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
He unwittingly revealed his strategy to get rid of a number of MPs
Dr Delia himself, and those who stand firmly behind him, have long been accusing the ‘establishment’ of putting spokes in the wheels and of not accepting the democratic will of the absolute majority of paid members who had elected him.
The sentiment was starkly exposed in comments Dr Delia made this week during #TimesTalk when he expressed his frustration that not all MPs were toeing the same line. Moreover, he complained it was very difficult to work with a team he already found there.
Members of the parliamentary group who spoke with the Times of Malta on condition of anonymity questioned the rationale of such a comment at this point in time. “He unwittingly revealed his strategy to get rid of a number of MPs. No leader ever speaks in a way to show a divide,” one MP commented.
Others pointed out it was “madness” for a leader to declare war against a section of his own MPs when he had not yet won an internal battle.
Though the leadership cannot claim any glory in its first electoral test, which saw the party lose both the European and council elections with huge margins, the internal unrest was also fuelled by the decision made last Saturday by the executive committee to co-opt Jean Pierre Debono to fill Mr Stellini’s seat.
Amid mounting controversy and internal dissent, Mr Debono announced he was renouncing the parliamentary seat.