Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has stood by comments he made on Facebook about Adrian Delia after the PN leader filed a judicial protest on Friday. 

Delia had protested that Azzopardi was spreading “defamatory and false allegations” about him through text messages. 

He particularly complained about a text by Azzopardi which read: “Of course it is! And you have no idea of the hundreds of other messages in the mobile of Fenech in 2019 relating to the payment to Delia of €50,000 and pledge of €100,000 more if Casa was not elected. You have NO idea what I’ve been holding up inside me since January. Know once and for all that the man is a pathological liar”.

In a counter-protest on Saturday, Azzopardi said nothing could detract from the fact that after it had become known that Yorgen Fenech was the owner of secret company 17 Black, Delia still had contacts with him and they had dinner together, at the same time as Nationalist MPs were hitting out at the corruption which stemmed from the secret company.

Azzopardi said Delia could not care less about bringing down the Nationalist Party when more facts became public, but he, because he loved the party, wanted the facts to be known before it was too late.

Furthermore, Azzopardi observed, Delia never actually denied the claims about him.

Azzopardi repeated a challenge he made on Facebook that if it turns out that there is forensic evidence in Fenech’s mobile phone of communication and/or meetings between Delia and the business in 2019, then Delia would resign as an MP.

"If the contents of the phone do not show this evidence, I (Azzopardi) would resign."

The war between the two escalated as PN councillors vote on whether Delia is to be challenged to a new leadership contest, amid poor showing in the polls as well as the Fenech claims.