Nationalist MP and close Adrian Delia aide Herman Schiavone spoke on Thursday in favour of the party readmitting Franco Debono in its fold, a day after the former MP wrote a scathing opinion piece in Times of Malta criticising the party for having decided to boycott a parliamentary grilling of the new police commissioner-designate.

Debono broke ranks with the PN in 2012 after he voted with the Opposition in the Budget for 2013, bringing down the Gonzi government a few months before a general election was due.

Disharmony had been simmering for a number of years before that, with Debono insisting on the need for widescale constitutional, justice and institutional reforms.

Significantly, Schiavone and Debono were rivals on the same electoral district and had a rocky relationship.

Schiavone, writing on Facebook, took his cue from a Times of Malta editorial entitled: New horizons for the PN.

He said this was a very good editorial which had set him thinking about the new way forward for the PN. 

Diversity of thought within a political party was essential, he said. It did not matter that there was disagreement. In three years as an MP he had learnt that it did not matter if MPs were sometimes critical of the party and voted according to their conscience.   

In this legislature, he had seen several MPs speaking their mind and voting against what the whip had requested. He did not think that anyone should act against them. Rather, if the party wanted to grow, it should embrace those who were not 'yes men.' 

There was strength in diversity. He felt that the party should have the courage to readmit everyone, including former MPs and activists, not least Franco Debono who behaviour in the past was only a reflection of the fact that they were 10 years ahead in the way an MP should act.

In order to be in a position to win, the PN needed to be open to everyone, including new people, Schiavone said.