Does Adrian Delia have the support of the tesserati (party cardholders) after all, the support he is flaunting? Together with some minor players in the PN parliamentary group, he is now pitting the tesserati against the deputati (MPs). Delia won just over half the card holder votes in the contested leadership poll.

He got some two-thirds of the councillors’ votes (those that did vote) in the vote of confidence. There was no other contestant and therefore no alternative. It was a very poor result for any leader. The party cardholders voted in the general elections.

They all had their preferred candidate, of whom some were elected, including those who now have no confidence in the leader of the opposition.

Many of these cardholders canvassed for their preferred candidate and have a very close relationship of trust with him/her, wives/husbands and children. The PN general council is largely made up of members of the party sectional committees.

Party general election candidates fight to get their loyalists elected to these committees, so as to have clout in the district from where they aspire to be elected.

These committee members are fiercely loyal to their candidates and subsequent MPs and are looked up to by other tesserati for guidance and inspiration. Anybody who has been through this process will vouch for this.

Delia has never been tested. He has never garnered even one vote out on the ground. Remember we used to call former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici “Zero”.

The 17 candidates he seeks to displace (plus the two MEPs) garnered some 100,000 votes between them.

But that apart, will the kunsilliera and tesserati vote to expel their own MPs, whom they worked so hard to get elected from the party?

The 17 candidates he seeks to displace (plus two MEPs) garnered some 100,000 votes between them- Austin Sammut

Will they favour Delia over their own directly elected and established local village MP?

Delia may reach out wherever he deems fit but it is very difficult to destroy the loyalty (sometimes embedded in more than one generation) in favour of a Johnny-come-lately?

In 2017, Delia faced one contestant. Now effectively he has 17 collectively as one.

This is not to mention that things have continued to deteriorate in his regard with gaffes, lies, controversies, suspicious communications, unbecoming behaviour surrounding him – resulting in the party he claims to love stuck in the quagmire of mediocrity.

A vote of confidence (or no confidence) cannot be taken within the two years or so since the last one I understand (although there is controversy about this too).

So all this may be hypothetical and unlikely – unless he calls for the 17 MPs to be expelled.

I doubt that his delusions of grandeur and otherwise will extend as far as calling on the tesserati to expel the dissenting MPs from the party?

Will the tesserati vote out their trusted representatives in favour of one untested man in the electoral field?

Will he put his money where his mouth is; with the beloved tesserati he uses and manipulates for his own ends?

He can pit himself against the MPs before the grand jury of kunsilliera and, if he is successful, subsequently before the tesserati.

They are all behind him after all. If he wins he will truly be king. He will be provided with a royal suite, rather than a bedsit, in what will become known as Palazzo Ċentrali.

He will be given a gilded carriage with two fine snorting horses.

One of those old funeral hearses which are still extant can be adapted. He will ride off into the sunshine.

Go for it Adrian Delia. You may very well win. In any case the issue will be resolved one way or the other. But if you lose you leave.