Embattled Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has hinted he is considering a fresh confidence vote before the general council.

“If I don’t win that vote, I am out,” he told Times of Malta. But if he does, the MPs who have voted against him would have to toe the line or step aside.

He said it would make no sense winning the vote while having to contend with MPs persisting in their “refusal to cooperate”.

In a separate interview, Comodini Cachia described Delia’s three-year tenure as having been characterised by “bullying, arrogance and bad advice”.

Delia’s plan will be unveiled on Thursday during an executive committee meeting which the PN leader has called to discuss his “concrete proposal” on the way forward.

The move comes after losing confidence votes before both the party’s parliamentary group and executive committee.

Comodini Cachia accused Delia of sowing division from the very start

The MPs nominated Therese Comodini Cachia to replace him as opposition leader but the plan hit a brick wall when President George Vella said Delia could not be replaced because the constitution called for the party leader to be leader of the opposition.

As for his relationship with 17 Black owner and Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, Delia insisted he had done nothing unethical, illegal or abusive.

All WhatsApp messages he had exchanged with Fenech had at one point disappeared from his mobile phone but he had not deleted them. He could not explain how this happened, he said.

Comodini Cachia acknowledged the PN leader had good intentions but accused him of sowing division from the very start. The former MEP revealed she had been nominated to replace Delia as opposition leader only after MP Claudio Grech declined the role.

Asked about her reluctance to take up her parliamentary seat after the 2017 general election, she said her decision to come forward at this delicate time in the party’s history should convince the people of her resolve to do her utmost for party and country.