THE PN SHIPWRECK OF 10TH FEBRUARY 2020 At his own cost Adrian Delia has learnt you cannot rest in a

Today the Maltese Islands are celebrating the event of St Paul’s Shipwreck in the Maltese Islands.

However, it is a day of two shipwreck events because our Islands are experiencing another shipwreck event, that of the Nationalist Party.

The PN shipwreck has long been coming and current Leader Delia has done his level best to keep his and the PN’s head above the turbulent waters – to no avail. He has found, at his own cost, you cannot rest in a bed that is squirming with serpents.

I have been following politics for decades and yes, it is not an easy game with constant shifts, greed, ambition, vindictive streaks, egoism and above all oozing with treachery.

William Shakespeare captured it all in his Julius Caesar drama in which the Roman Emperor, surrounded by “friends” ended his days in a flurry of back stabs.

History is littered with such unsavoury episodes but in all honesty I have to state I have never experienced such a dirty, treacherous and despicable chain of events that have pockmarked the Nationalist Party in recent months.

At some stage in the recent past, one Adrian Delia with no political pedigree to speak of, realised that drastic action was necessary to salvage a Party that was bankrupt not only in finance, but also in ideals, ideas and general outlook. He promised a “new way” and immediately gained grassroots support.

HOWEVER, right from the very start every conceivable opportunity was taken by his Party “friends” to stab him in the back as an upstart and as of not having “the elite blood” to elevate him to Party Leadership.

The other day Delia was highly critical of some whom he claimed felt they “owned” the PN.

His woes began even before his election when the late blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia promoted allegations he was a money-launderer and an alleged front for a Soho prostitution racket. However, that was merely the start. Since then he has been repeatedly stabbed at every step of the way and the stabbing has reached its culmination in recent days.

His tenacity has to be admired. He has stuck to his guns and is still sticking to his guns trying to do the “decent thing”. His one gross mistake has been to erroneously extend a hand of friendship to the serpents surrounding him in the optimistic hope that one day unity will be achieved.

He has tried to espouse people like Simon Busuttil, Jason Azzopardi, Karol Aquilina, David Casa, Roberta Metsola, Theresa Comodini Cachia, Claudette Buttigieg, Manwel Delia and others, little realising that one can never, ever rest in a bed of serpents.

These people have not only permanently damaged the PN internally but they have dirtied and shamed Malta’s reputation overseas for vindictive reasons and through sheer, unadulterated hate of the current Government which in their belief has replaced and usurped their “elite” right to govern and Government.

The Caruana Galizia family featured in one of the more obscene and despicable moments when Delia was told to “clear off” during a commemoration event for DCG at the Great Siege Monument.

What happens next? The PN has imploded and exploded. It has debts of millions of euros, it has totally lost credibility and is nowadays regarded as a joke organisation.

Will Adrian Delia be able to rise and raise it out of the ashes? It does not look likely.

ALBERT FENECH