Frank Portelli accuses the very political party he wants to lead of rigging the leadership election, presumably against him

There are two textbook narcissists in this leadership election – Frank Portelli and Adrian Delia – so expect the inevitable to happen. Frank Portelli, already aware – because he is deluded but not that deluded – that he isn’t exactly going to coast home to glory, has begun even before the vote to say that the leadership election is rigged.

Narcissists do this kind of thing as a self-protective device. They need to shore up and protect their fragile ego. Rejection, particularly very public rejection, causes profound damage at a level which normal people do not experience. Saying that the election is rigged, or that a journalist deliberately destroyed their chances along with a hidden hand or a clique determined to keep power, allows them to protect their ego from what they perceive as very public shame and personal failure.

Adrian Delia has a good chance of winning, so is he is not saying that the election is rigged. But rest assured that if he does not win, he will be leading a mob, carrying pitchforks and baying for blood, to my door. But my door is surrounded already by shrieking Laburisti, so he and his supposedly Nationalist supporters are going to have to get in line.

One thing’s for sure, if that man is elected, the Nationalist Party is dead in the water, and democracy in Malta – which is half-dead already – dies with it.