Outgoing PN media chief Pierre Portelli and party MP Karol Aquilina traded accusations and insults on Tuesday, as internal party divisions came out into the open.

Mr Portelli drew first blood saying Dr Aquilina had appeared in court alongside blogger Manuel Delia, who Mr Portelli said was out to harm the party.

Dr Aquilina retorted by saying Mr Portelli was close friends with 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech.

That prompted Facebook fury from Mr Portelli, who said that claim was "fabricated" and accused Dr Aquilina of having brought financial ruin on the PN when, as president of its administrative council, he accepted money from various developers.

Dr Aquilina speaks to the press late on Tuesday evening.

Speaking on Tuesday night, Dr Aquilina noted that Mr Portelli had not denied being a personal friend of Mr Fenech. 

Dr Aquilina was speaking late in the evening, following a long parliamentary group meeting which party leader Adrian Delia described as "positive". Another MP who asked to remain unnamed, however, claimed that "at least 10" MPs had called for Dr Delia to step down as party leader. 

Mr Portelli quit the PN's media arm under a cloud late on Monday night, making public a resignation letter in which he accused unnamed MPs of being complicit in "criminal activity" in an attempt to shove party leader Adrian Delia aside. 

He later told Times of Malta that now that he had resigned, MPs who were staunchly opposed to Dr Delia's leadership had no excuses to mask their failings. 

Earlier in the day, Mr Delia had written of Mr Portell that it was the second time he was abandoning the Nationalist Party.

“When John Dalli was leading his sapping campaign from Super One, Pierre Portelli was already abandoning his post at the PN for the first time,” Mr Delia charged.

He noted that while Mr Portelli was posting "snide" comments about Dr Aquilina and himself appearing in court, the PN's now-former media chief had not even shown up in court to testify in that case, claiming that he was "not notified". 

Dr Aquilina’s accusation about Mr Portelli and Mr Fenech being close friends comes just two weeks after former PN candidate David Thake alleged that Mr Fenech had offered the Nationalist Party €50,000 if David Casa was not reelected as MEP.

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