Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia insisted on Monday that he is not ignoring calls for him to resign, but, he said, there is a structure and there are rules which have to be respected.
Speaking outside PN headquarters, Dr Delia said the party's executive on Thursday will discuss the petition sent to the party last week calling for a vote in his leadership.
Dr Delia said he would respect the outcome of a “democratic vote” held in the general council.
Dr Delia has so far resisted calls to put his leadership to the test through such a vote.
Despite initially signaling the procedures for such a vote would get under way, the party has since continued to raise doubts about whether the 150 signature threshold was reached, due to their being a number of “invalid” signatures on the petition put forward.
Speaking to Times of Malta after a two-hour parliamentary group meeting that sources say largely ignored the current leadership crisis, Dr Delia did not reply directly when asked if he was willing to tackle a vote in the general council head on.
“It is not a question of being willing or not. We have an executive meeting on Thursday, and the executive will be discussing according to the statute, the petition it has before it”, Dr Delia said.
Asked if he thought the general council meeting should be held, Dr Delia said this was not about his personal opinion.
He said the executive was free to decide on the petition, and would proceed from there.
Dr Delia maintained he was not ignoring calls for his resignation.
“A party has a statute. It is called a structure and a statute because a party works like that. So it is useless trying to determine myself what procedures should be adopted. We are not a totalitarian party. We are a democratic party. There are rules. There are regulations.
“A petition could have been done. It has been done and it will be discussed in the executive”.
The PN leader insisted this was not a personal issue.
“I tackle this with full responsibility as leader of a party and keep the best interests of the party before my own. On Thursday we will have a free discussion and a democratic discussion”.
Dr Delia said the best interest of the party would be determined on Thursday and further to that, the possibility of also going to the general council, which is statutory something that will also be considered.
MPs discussed parliamentary matters – Arrigo
PN deputy leader Roberto Arrigo insisted that the parliamentary group meeting was about parliamentary affairs.
Asked if other matters were raised, Mr Arrigo said only laws proposed by the government had been raised during the meeting.
A source within the group, who wished to remain unnamed, said attempts to steer the meeting to discuss the PN’s ongoing crisis were shot down.
Speaking to Times of Malta after the meeting, PN MP Jason Azzopardi, who has made his views on Dr Delia’s leadership amply clear, said it should be a matter of when and not if the general council convenes to discuss the motion put forward in the petition.
“I think the uncertainty is not helping matters.”
Other MPs approached by Times of Malta declined to comment.