Nationalist Party leadership contenders should declare their liabilities not just their assets

People think it’s important that the contenders for the Nationalist Party leadership declare their assets and make that declaration public (and yet, except for Chris Said and Alex Perici Calascione, they have not).

I think it’s far more important that they declare their liabilities – specifically, what they owe to the banks and other creditors.

Nobody is going to blink if they have a home loan or owe the banks a few tens of thousands. But owing millions is a different matter altogether.

I estimate that Adrian Delia and Frank Portelli must owe the banks around €20 million – that’s right, twenty million – between them. Both of them are obliged to come clean on the extent of their debts. And not only that, but they also owe the public an explanation of how they intend to pay back debts on that scale when one of them has no income to speak of (Dr Portelli) but lives off his wife’s earnings, while the other one (Dr Delia) has told the public that he will shed his shareholdings, his law practice and his business interests if he becomes Nationalist Party leader.

How can he shed his business interests if they are burdened by significant debt to the bank? He can’t. Just as he can’t repay the interest, let alone the capital, off the Opposition leader’s unimpressive salary.

This man wants to become Opposition leader and then Prime Minister. He is in duty bound to tell the electorate how much he owes the banks and how he intends to repay it.

This man wants to become Opposition leader and then Prime Minister. He is in duty bound to tell the public exactly how many millions he owes the banks and other creditors, and why he has not filed for bankruptcy given that he has no means of settling his extensive debts which far exceed his known assets.