Former Opposition leader Adrian Delia's decision to grill the editor of an online news portal was "surreal and in utterly poor taste" according to PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia. 

On Monday, Lovin Malta editor Julian Bonnici faced a grilling at the witness stand by the former PN leader over a story claiming Delia had messaged Yorgen Fenech during a 2018 parliamentary debate about the businessman’s secret company 17 Black.

Delia took over the questioning as his lawyer was indisposed. 

In a tweet after the sitting, Comodini Cachia said she believed the questioning of a journalist by an MP "in his own case" was surreal and in utterly poor taste. 

"True he can but doesn’t anyone think this flies in the face of the press freedom MPs should be fighting for?!" Comodini Cachia, who is a lawyer herself, said.

In the summer of 2020, Comodini Cachia had been nominated by her fellow MPs to unseat Delia as the Opposition leader after he lost a number of votes of confidence in his leadership. 

At the time, Comodini Cachia had told Times of Malta Delia had been “badly advised” and that he worked “immediately on dividing the party” when he was elected in September 2017.

She also went on to describe his leadership style as “bullying, arrogant and deaf to what people want”.

Her move to become Opposition leader failed because the president ruled he could not remove Delia since the leader of the opposition had to be the leader of the largest party opposing the government. 

She did not not contest a subsequent leadership race, with Bernard Grech ultimately elected.

Subsequently, the Nationalist MP announced, a year later, in June 2021, that she would not be contesting the next general election and will instead help her party and colleagues behind the scenes. 

Comodini Cachia also serves as one of the lawyers for the family of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.