The Nationalist Party’s youth wing has endorsed calls for a change in party leadership, adding further pressure on Adrian Delia to bow out.
In a Facebook post, MŻPN said that they endorsed party grandee Louis Galea’s assessment that the party needed a new leadership team to progress.
“The only way forward for the Nationalist party is for it to have new leadership which brings together all those who wish to contribute to strengthening the party,” the party’s youth wing said.
Dr Galea, a former minister who has been tasked with finding ways to reform the PN, had on Thursday called for the party to find a new leadership team as soon as possible, echoing a demand made by many of the party's MPs.
On Friday, MŻPN endorsed Dr Galea's call and said it could not ignore what had happened in the past hours.
It is the MŻPN’s first public statement since tensions within the PN erupted into the open this week.
Dr Delia, who has led the party since September 2017, has struggled to win over popular support or quell internal discontent during his time at the helm. An opinion survey published last week showed that less than 14 per cent of the electorate trust him – a record low.
That dismal showing prompted murmurs of discontent within the PN to rise to open calls for Dr Delia to quit. But despite indications that he no longer enjoys the trust of the majority of the party’s MPs, Dr Delia has said he has no intention of stepping down.
MŻPN tensions
Dr Delia has enjoyed a fractious relationship with his party’s youth wing.
He has created a separate branch of the party, named Team Start, intended for young members aged 14 to 18. Critics of Dr Delia have said that the move was intended to sideline the MŻPN.
Last June, the MŻPN published a report in which it blamed Dr Delia and his leadership team for introducing an “us vs them” mentality within the party, refusing to acknowledge criticism, doing a poor job of running the PN’s media arm and reacting with a sense of denial to a drubbing at the polls during MEP elections.