It may appear unprecedented but the current MPs’ revolt and attempt to remove the Nationalist Party leader bears striking similarities to the goings-on within the same party between 1974 and 1976.

On Tuesday, 17 Nationalist MPs and two MEPs backed a motion of no-confidence in party and opposition leader Adrian Delia. Eleven MPs stood by their leader.

In 1974, 21 out of 27 Nationalist MPs signed a document calling for the resignation of then party and opposition leader George Borg Olivier.

In both cases, the party leader initially refused to bow.

The circumstances, however, were different.

By 1974, Borg Olivier had been leader of the PN for 24 years and a giant of Maltese politics. In many people’s eyes, he was a hero of the Nationalist Party having stood up for the party, alone in parliament, in the face of a hostile colonial government. He served as prime minister in the 1950s and 1960s and was the father of Malta’s independence. 

In 1974, 21 out of 27 Nationalist MPs signed a document calling for the resignation of then party and opposition leader George Borg Olivier (right).

But Borg Olivier was criticised because of his age (he was said to look “tired” at 63), and critics lashed out at his antiquated ways and not standing up vociferously enough against then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.

There were also political divisions stemming mostly from the new Republican constitution moved by Mintoff, although in this case, most Nationalist MPs were actually backing Mintoff, and Borg Olivier was not. Borg Olivier had also lost the 1971 general election, albeit by the slimmest of margins.

In contrast, Delia is the first party leader elected directly by the party membership and is a political newcomer who still has to contest a general election. He has been dogged by suspicion ever since he put his name forward in the leadership contest of 2017, especially after Daphne Caruana Galizia raised alarm over financial dealings he made as a lawyer some 20 years ago, although he denied wrongdoing.

His three years at the party helm have shown no improvement in poor opinion polls which he inherited, with the real risk of the PN being consigned to irrelevance when the next general election is held.

Recent Times of Malta revelations of friendly chats with Yorgen Fenech after he was revealed as the owner of secret company 17 Black appear to have been the final straw which could break his short political career.

Refusing to go quietly

But both Borg Olivier and Delia refused to go quietly.

In 1976, rival supporters came to blows at a meeting of the PN general council. A small crowd of Delia supporters hurled insults at Nationalist MPs after last Tuesday’s vote.

Despite having three-quarters of the parliamentary group against him, Borg Olivier managed to stay on for almost three years as party and opposition leader.

He bought time by agreeing to reforms of the party statute (sounds familiar?) which took away some of his powers, including his authority to preside over the party’s executive. He rightly calculated that the rebel MPs, who were without a clear leader, would not risk a party split, and made it clear he would lead the party into the 1976 general election. 

But Labour won the election with 51.5% of the vote.

Moves to have Borg Olivier removed were rekindled, then, as now, by the party’s youth movement joined by a cadre, which included then 28-year-old Louis Galea, who, to this day, still plays a central role in PN reform. 

Borg Olivier, reluctantly, starting giving way, agreeing to the election of a designate leader who would take over at a date which he himself would decide. He finally stepped down some months later, in 1977, after Eddie Fenech Adami’s election.

Delia survived a confidence vote by the PN councillors last year. He has now been through the process of party statute reform and he too insists he should be the one to lead the party to the next general election. 

In 1974, the PN could afford to wait for a general election, knowing that it could actually win it.

That may not be the case this time around.

In 1949, Dom Mintoff (right) ousted Labour party leader Paul Boffa, who set up a rival party.

The historic splits

The Nationalist Party’s history does not have the sort of dramatic split witnessed by the Labour Party in 1949, when Dom Mintoff ousted party leader Paul Boffa, who set up a rival party.

It, however, faced a split in 1958 when respected lawyer and writer Herbert Ganado, a long-serving member of the PN, who was exiled during the war for his pro-Italian sympathies, argued that Borg Olivier was too soft on Mintoff and was not strong enough to stand up to him.

He disagreed with Borg Olivier’s social welfare policies, and especially, independence from Britain, insisting that Malta was not yet ready for it.

Ganado formed his own party, the PDN, which did not, however, take any of the PN’s MPs. The new party won 9.3 per cent of the votes in the 1962 elections and elected four MPs (one of whom, the late Coronato Attard of Gozo, shortly afterwards switched to the Nationalist Party).

Acknowledgements: Henry Frendo: Patrijott Liberali Mata