PN leader Adrian Delia enjoys the support of 56.8 per cent of the membership of the Nationalist Party, according to a survey.

A survey issued by MaltaToday says, however, that just over a third of the PN’s members (33.6%) feel Dr Delia should resign, with the biggest resistance coming in the tenth district (Sliema/St Julian’s).

The survey, conducted between February 12-14 also shows that Dr Delia enjoys a high trust rating among the PN’s members, while the parliamentary group has a ‘medium’ rating.

The support of the grassroots membership is crucial to Dr Delia, who was the first PN leader to be directly elected by the party membership. He won the contest against Chris Said in September 2017 with 53% support.

Last July he won a confidence vote with 67% of party councillors voting in his favour.

Dr Delia has, however, been battling for support within the PN parliamentary group.

Last week, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi in a Facebook post named 17 members of the PN parliamentary group who want Dr Delia to stand down. 

But Dr Delia denied that he does not enjoy majority support within the 30-member group, pointing out that two on Dr Azzopardi's list are actually MEPs.

Another. Stephen Spiteri has distanced himself from the group, dubbed '17 Blue heroes'.

Efforts to derail Delia - four voters' views

Meanwhile, four PN voters have expressed their views on Delia's decision to defy a rebellion by his MPs

[attach id=836477 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Justin Anastasi[/attach]

HR consultant Justin Anastasi told The Sunday Times of Malta that at a time when the PN had become disconnected from the electorate, Dr Delia brought politics back to the people and removed their sense of entitlement.

“He was voted in to bring about this new way and change, and to do politics differently.”

However, change is never easy, appealing to some and not to others, he adds.

“Adrian has had to overcome a lot of challenges from day one because of disunity.

“There’s been an active effort to derail him by certain members of the party and some media houses which have a certain bias against him have exacerbated the situation.”

Mr Anastasi believes it is hypocritical for these people to then target Dr Delia when the party is not performing well.

While many argue that the lack of popular support signals the need to move aside, Mr Anastasi believes Dr Delia’s choice to stay on reflects his perseverance and determination in the face of challenges, which are qualities he looks for in a leader.

“Adrian Delia has endured some of the worst attacks on himself. I would definitely want a leader who stays true to his beliefs and those who elect him while championing positive change.”

Work must start now

[attach id=836474 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Mark Galea Pace[/attach]

A waterpolo player for many years, personal trainer Mark Galea Pace understands that one can only move forward as a team.

“There have been coaches and players I haven’t been on good terms with but we still fought for the same goals. When it came to playing the game we all fought for each other.

“If I had a problem with the team it was up to me to leave rather than undermining it,” he says.

Dr Delia, he stresses, was democratically elected twice with a mandate to contest the next elections.

However, the backstabbing and behind-the-scenes manoeuvring hurt the party.

If popular support for him has been lost, it is because people with a certain agenda have worked to bring this about.

The people who are anti-Delia have influenced the media and it seems like people are feeding off that.

“Ninety per cent of those I speak to in the street don’t seem to have a solid reason not to support Delia. They are just relaying other people’s opinions or what they read on social media.”

With a loyal team around him, fresh proposals and positive thinking, Dr Delia can succeed “but work must start now.”

“Delia is very approachable. He is a people’s man. I’ve only met him three times and I can feel that natural feeling that he’s ready to listen to you.”

Job is to win elections

[attach id=836471 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Vanessa Farrugia[/attach]

A party leader’s job is to lead a party into winning elections, says Vanessa Farrugia, a human rights activist. “But in the three years since he was elected, Delia’s ratings have gone from bad to abysmal to shocking.”

A leader with such poor support has threatened MPs with dismissal from the party, she observes.

“This is completely unacceptable. If he carries on threatening those who earned the bulk of the votes for the party, he will annihilate the PN.”

Hasn’t the infighting drained support for the leader? Ms Farrugia believes it was Dr Delia’s job to unite the party behind him.

In the past, other party leaders from both sides of Parliament had started out with a divided party and not only managed to bring about unity but increased their own personal following.

Others should not be blamed for Delia’s shortcomings.

“A few weeks ago, we saw Robert Abela take over the leadership when everyone thought by default that Chris Fearne was going to take it so there was a massive divide there. Fast forward a few weeks and everyone is behind Abela. He has managed to unify the party in a way Delia hasn’t.”

‘We don’t trust you’

[attach id=836468 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Frank Piscopo[/attach]

Frank Piscopo, who is in marketing research and IT, has been a PN supporter since 1981. But he says Dr Delia’s lack of transparency, refusal to come clean on his finances and other “dodgy wheelings and dealings”, did not give him much hope in the leader.

The problem started with his first response to the article by Daphne Caruana Galizia on his Barclays account, Mr Piscopo said.

First he said he had no offshore accounts, which turned out not to be true, then he continued to change the story from one day to the next.

“And, as we know, we ended up with the latest story where he said it was a client account.”

Then came his general antagonism towards Daphne Caruana Galizia, calling her a “biċċa blogger”, and his failure to explain his financial position.

“You’re asking me to trust him with all this behind him?”

Now that the electorate is revealing similar sentiments of lack of faith in Dr Delia, Mr Piscopo insists he needs to step aside.“Democracy is a live thing. The problem is many people see it as starting and ending when we go to vote.

“And when people say we don’t trust you anymore, seeing that you’re the leader of a party aiming to be in government, and with polls showing you have absolutely no chance of doing that, you need to step aside and allow the party to do what it was born to do, to get into government.”