Adrian Delia sat silent, physically surrounded but in many ways isolated during a tense meeting of Nationalist Party top brass on Tuesday. 

For around six hours, the PN leader faced criticism and calls to step aside from party heavyweights and widely-respected moderates.  

A few came to his defence. Among them was his friend André Grech, a confidant of Delia’s but not someone with particular sway within the PN's executive committee. Delia loyalists Edwin Vassallo and Mario Galea, both MPs, also argued his case before the group. 

However, no notable party grandees came to Delia's defence, according to two sources who were present during the marathon meeting. 

His two deputy leaders, Robert Arrigo and David Agius, remained largely tight-lipped. So did most of the others who have traditionally backed Delia during his turbulent three-year stint as PN leader. 

The sources, who described themselves as “moderates” within the party, said that, in contrast, the list of those who urged Delia to step down was “formidable”.

PN executive committee members sit in the meeting hall on the PN headquarters' top floor. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

“[Former prime minister] Lawrence Gonzi, [former European Commissioner] Tonio Borg, [former minister and parliamentary speaker] Louis Galea, and then a number of people who are seen as respected and not staunch anti-Delia members – they all spoke out against him, one after another,” one source said. 

Delia himself barely said a word during the meeting, according to the sources, except to argue against holding yet another confidence vote in his leadership. A vote, Delia told the meeting, was not on the meeting's agenda. 

Outnumbered and rattled

Embattled and outnumbered, Delia ultimately lost that struggle some hours into the meeting. A vote of confidence was held in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
 
Forty-seven members voted against Delia, 35 voted for him and one person abstained in the secret vote. The PN leader would go on to spin the result as meaningless.

"This vote has no consequence," he told the press outside. 

But the meeting must have rattled him. 

Going into the meeting, the embattled leader had toyed with the idea of proposing a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet, stripping dissident MPs of their portfolios.  

Instead, the meeting was dominated by a “never-ending” discussion about his leadership.  

“Delia did not even propose any disciplinary measures to be taken against those who had tried to kick him out, even though this is something we know he wanted to bring up,” one of the executive members said. 

Another source meanwhile described Tuesday’s meeting as “the dying days of a broken leadership”. 

“The feeling is really not good now. It feels like the end of the line, like we are witnessing the dying days of a broken leadership," the source said.

"It is all coming apart".