Following the story published yesterday about Adrian Delia’s comments regarding Jason Azzopardi, a wave of online reactions emerged, indicating overwhelming support from Nationalist Party members for Azzopardi’s return as a PN candidate. I also contacted Jason Azzopardi again, and he confirmed that he has mostly received positive messages following the article’s publication.
The return of Jason Azzopardi within PN’s fold would once again revitalise the Nationalist Party into an actual opposition to the government, as opposed to just being a talking shop about tax incentives proposals that are similar to the government’s actual policies. One of the Nationalist Party’s most recent failures to fulfill its role as the Opposition party was in case of Manoel Island. The government was compelled to challenge MIDI over its contractual violations following massive pressure by civil society with the Nationalist Party being completely missing from the campaign.
I don’t know what Adrian Delia has in mind, but the Nationalist Party is not like the Labour Party and party functionaries within PN would not forgive Adrian Delia if he backed down from a promise on working with a previous PN stalwart such as Jason Azzopardi. Obviously, Adrian Delia needs the votes to get elected as leader first, but I think he genuinely means what he says. I don’t think Adrian Delia is stupid enough to make such a commitment knowing he would break it.
I also think it makes perfect sense. Jason Azzopardi has overwhelming support within PN and his return would galvanise many PN supporters who feel alienated by Adrian Delia due to his past actions. Adrian Delia should know by experience, that without the support of his own party members, he won’t be able to thrust PN into an election victory. He needs all the possible political shades of PN to present a unified party that is able to become the alternative government.
This brings us back to our very regular discussions and writings about PN. Bernard Grech failed to get the majority support because he minimised the party’s potential outreach by avoiding many matters. Bernard Grech refused to embrace civil liberties such as euthanasia to appease his conservative base and avoided association with Jason Azzopardi and Repubbika out of fear that the party would be projected as “too negative”. Yet, Bernard Grech played in the hands of the Labour Party’s propaganda machine.
PN needs to broaden its politics with a coalition mindset and the only way to do this is to be a centrist party. If Adrian Delia turns PN into a populist and far-right movement, he will be condemning PN for another 25 years in opposition because Labour has already appropriated all the populism it needs to remain in power. On the other hand, whether Adrian Delia has truly changed, as he claims, remains to be seen.
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