Adrian Delia | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Leader of the Opposition | |
In office 6 October 2017 –7 October 2020 | |
President | Marie Louise Coleiro Preca George Vella |
Prime Minister | Joseph Muscat Robert Abela |
Preceded by | Simon Busuttil |
Succeeded by | Bernard Grech |
Leader of the Nationalist Party | |
In office 17 September 2017 –3 October 2020 | |
Preceded by | Simon Busuttil |
Succeeded by | Bernard Grech |
Member of Parliament | |
Assumed office 4 October 2017 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Sliema,State of Malta | 8 August 1969
Political party | Nationalist Party |
Spouse | Nickie Vella De Fremaux (Divorced) |
Domestic partner | Cynthia Galea |
Children | 6 |
Alma mater | University of Malta |
Adrian Delia, MP (born 8 August 1969,in Sliema,Malta) is a Maltese politician,and lawyer by profession. [1] He is the former leader of the Nationalist Party from September 2017 till October 2020.
Adrian Delia grew up in Birkirkara. He received his formation from the Jesuit St Aloysius' College. He graduated as a lawyer from the University of Malta in 1993. [2]
Delia started out in the Legal Office of Mid-Med Bank, [2] a bank later acquired by HSBC and branded as HSBC Malta. Delia founded his legal firm Aequitas Legal. He acted as Director and Company Secretary of Erste Bank Malta. [3]
Delia was elected as vice-president of Birkirkara F.C. in June 2011,while also representing the club in the council of the Malta Football Association. [4] He then was president of Birkirkara from 29 May 2015 till 29 June 2017 following his announcement that he would be taking an active role in politics.
Under the presidency of Delia the club achieved the first qualification in the third qualifying round in the UEFA Europa League in Season 2016–17. [5] [6] Delia famously lured in former Italian international Fabrizio Miccoli. [7] [8] [9] [10] The team won a match against West Ham United F.C.,but were eliminated on penalties. [11] After the match West Ham showed interest in Birkirkara's Mauricio Mazzetti,but Delia commented that no formal offers had been made. [12]
Adrian Delia worked for Radio 101 during his student years. [2]
He was approached by Mario de Marco on behalf of the Nationalist Party (Malta) to contest the 2013 Maltese general election and 2017 Maltese general election,which he both declined for career reasons. [13]
In 2017,after the Simon Busuttil's announced departure as Leader of the Nationalist Party further to the loss in the 2017 elections,Delia was the first to contest the leadership of the party. [3] [14] He resigned from Birkirkara F.C. on 28 June 2017. [15] [16] His nomination was made official on 17 July 2017. [17] Delia faced Chris Said,Frank Portelli and Alex Perici Calascione. In August 2018,it was reported that Adrian Delia was possibly the most popular throughout the race,as his lack of political experience was seen as an advantage. [18] On 17 September 2017 he was confirmed as Leader of the Nationalist Party. [19] [20]
During the beginning of his tenure,Delia started reworking the image of the Nationalist Party. In fact the team installed was no longer made up by a majority of lawyers,which was typical of the party,but instead included a sociologist,an economist,a banker and an engineer. He also reintroduced the party to the man in the street,by visiting villages and their local clubs. [21]
He took a socially conservative stance in politics in general,flagging Malta as lacking traditional moral values and national soul,and has come out against the relaxation of drug laws and liberalisation of prostitution. Delia also raised security concerns from lack of community policing where necessary. He also came out against vacation leave for homosexual women seeking IVF treatment abroad,a parliamentary motion which proved unpopular and was lost. [21]
On 16 October 2017,further to the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia,he expressed concerns over rule of law,calling the incident "the collapse of democracy and freedom of expression." [22] He called for Joseph Muscat,then Prime Minister of Malta,to assume responsibility of what happened by resigning. Delia however declined to join protests,saying it would not be appropriate for him to be present,given their past feud. [21]
On 3 February 2018,as Opposition Leader,Delia reshuffled spokespersons within the Parliamentary Group and took the shadowing of the Justice Ministry in hand. [23]
On 20 May 2018,Delia promised that a PN government,if elected,would repay the money overcharged from energy bills. [24]
Further to the conclusions of the magisterial inquiry with regards to ownership of Egrant,Delia requested that the report would be published in full,and wrote to the Advocate General to provide him with a full copy. [25] Furthermore,Delia removed Simon Busuttil from Shadow Minister for Good Governance and asked him to resign on 22 July 2018. [26] Delia assumed the Good Governance portfolio himself. [27] His request was later backed by the Administrative Council of the Party. [28]
In 2017,Daphne Caruana Galizia accused Delia of links to a London-based prostitution racket. [29] Delia denied the allegation. [29] [30] In a later interview,in May 2018,he promised to resign if any such activity is ever found. [31]
During the same period,in September 2017,Delia was also linked to freemasonry,a link he denied. [32]
In September 2018,several of Malta's human rights NGOs called out Delia for his comments about foreigners causing a threat to Maltese identity and values,calling them "abhorrent". The NGOs were also "shocked and disgusted",saying that by "using inflammatory language and calling for affirmation of the Maltese identity" he had "accused non-Maltese nationals of instilling feelings of fear and insecurity". [33]
In late December 2018,Delia has been accused of domestic violence,calling for him to step down from the leadership of the PN. [34] A women's rights campaigner,Francesca Fenech Conti,has also urged Delia to resign after the domestic violence allegations. [35] Democratic Party leader Godfrey Farrugia and former PN general secretary Rosette Thake also urged Delia to resign. [36]
January 2018,Dr Delia had reached an agreement with the Inland Revenue Department to start settling dues dating back more than a decade. The first bill,which covered the period between 2007 and 2013,totaled €81,751. It consisted of €48,374 in unpaid tax,a €4,604 penalty and €28,773 in interest. For the period 2014 to 2017 the pending bill of income tax was €64,086.
Dr Delia's in-laws paid the PN leader around €55,000 on 23 March 2018 and €65,000 on 20 April 2018 to settle his tax bill. [37] [38]
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)The Nationalist Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party.
Simon Busuttil is the Secretary General of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. Formerly, he was Leader of the Opposition. and Leader of the Nationalist Party in Malta and a Member of the European Parliament for Malta.
Joseph Muscat is a Maltese politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Malta from 2013 to 2020 and leader of the Labour Party from 2008 to 2020.
Raymond Caruana was a Maltese political activist affiliated with the Nationalist Party (PN). Caruana was murdered in a drive-by shooting at a PN club in Gudja.
General elections were held in Malta on Saturday, 3 June 2017 to elect all members of the House of Representatives. The elections were contested by the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Nationalist Party, led by opposition leader Simon Busuttil, and four other parties, making it the elections with most parties participating since 1962.
Christian Cardona is a Maltese former politician and lawyer. He was a Member of Parliament for the Maltese Labour Party and was elected Deputy Leader for Party Affairs in 2016. He served as Malta's Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business between 2013 and 2020.
Jason Azzopardi is a Maltese politician and lawyer. He graduated as Doctor of Laws with a master's degree in financial services from the University of Malta in 1996 and that year he started practicing as a private criminal lawyer in the courts of Malta.
The Democratic Party was a centrist to centre-left political party in Malta. It was founded in 2016 after a split from the Labour Party. It elected Malta's first two third party MPs for the first time since the country's Independence. In August 2020 the party announced an agreement to merge with the green Democratic Alternative party to form a new party called AD+PD. The merger was conducted on 17 October 2020.
Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese writer, journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist, who reported on political events in Malta and was known internationally for her investigation of the Panama Papers, and subsequent assassination by car bomb. In particular, she focused on investigative journalism, reporting on government corruption, nepotism, patronage, and allegations of money laundering, links between Malta's online gambling industry and organized crime, Malta's citizenship-by-investment scheme, and payments from the government of Azerbaijan. Caruana Galizia's national and international reputation was built on her regular reporting of misconduct by Maltese politicians and politically exposed persons.
General elections were held in Malta on 26 March 2022 to elect all members of the House of Representatives.
Chris Said is a Nationalist Party politician from Malta.
Timothy Alden is a Maltese environmental activist and former politician, and was the last leader of the Democratic Party before it merged with Democratic Alternative to create AD+PD.
Rosianne Cutajar is a Maltese politician who is formerly a member of the Labour Party. She is a member of the Parliament of Malta representing the Sixth District electoral division. Cutajar was Parliamentary Secretary for Civil Rights and Reforms within the Ministry for Justice, Equality and Governance. As a junior minister within Prime Minister Robert Abela’s government, she was responsible for Malta’s equality and civil rights policy and its implementation, together with the country’s legislative reforms across various sectors of government. Cutajar resigned from her position as parliamentary secretary in February 2021 after calls for her resignation due to links with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.
The 2019 European Parliament election was held in Malta on 25 May 2019. 8 different political parties took part in the election, of which, only 2 won seats in the European Parliament; the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, with 4 and 2 seats respectively.
A political and institutional crisis within the Republic of Malta followed the uncovering of alleged links between government officials and the 2017 assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and Minister for Tourism Konrad Mizzi resigned following the arrest of businessman Yorgen Fenech in connection with the murder.
The 2019–2020 Maltese protests started in Valletta and other urban centres of Malta on 20 November 2019, mainly calling for resignations after alleged political links to the assassination of journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia surfaced following the arrest of businessman Yorgen Fenech. The protesters also targeted government corruption and the lack of action on money laundering. The protests consisted of demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, and civil disobedience and have been unprecedented in Malta's political history since its independence from the United Kingdom.
Robert Abela is a Maltese lawyer and politician who has served as prime minister of Malta and leader of Labour Party since 2020. The son of former President George Abela, he was elected to Parliament in 2017. Abela was sworn in as prime minister following the resignation of Joseph Muscat on 13 January 2020.
Bernard Grech is a Maltese politician and lawyer who has been the leader of the Nationalist Party and the Leader of the Opposition since 2020.
Eve Borg Bonello is a Maltese activist and politician who grew to prominence during the 2019-2020 Maltese protests for her vocal opposition to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the corruption scandals that triggered the 2019 Malta political crisis and Muscat's eventual resignation.
Alex Borg is a lawyer and Maltese Member of Parliament. In April 2022, he was appointed shadow minister for Gozo.