A New Way straight back to a dark fascist past: and it’s all about him

The reincarnation of Joe Debono Grech, for those of us who remember Debono Grech when he was 50 like Adrian Delia. Notice that when he says “I want to thank my family”, he goes on to thank his parents and give them a paean of praise as “simple people”, then thanks his brother, his brother’s wife, and his brother’s children.

He does not mention his actual family: his wife and much-vaunted five children, who he mentioned constantly and repeatedly at the start of the campaign, even where absolutely not appropriate. This is significant. Do not ignore or overlook it.

He also says that the Nationalist Party’s Ethics Committee that he “did nothing wrong”. This is false. The committee – made up of serious and intelligent people – were so unconvinced by Delia’s explanations that they recommended he withdraws from the electoral race.

Please spare us the hysterical fascist talk. It’s no longer 1933. It’s 2017 and we want to move forwards into the future, not backwards into an inward-looking and dark past.

This is a rabble-rouser who does not belong in the 21st century and who has no appeal to the kind of people who have kept the Nationalist Party alive with their vote: civilised people who believe in tolerance, individual liberty, human rights and freedom of speech, who are opposed to the likes of Marine LePen and Victor Orban.

If this man is elected, the Nationalist Party will be shaved right down to its essential core, far-right vote of inward-looking ultra-conservatives. He spells the destruction of the Opposition, which is precisely what Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri want, and what they have planned out long-term with consultancy advice from Cambridge Analytica.

Labour’s long-term plan is not merely resounding victory at the polls and the establishment of a corrupt government, but the destruction of the Nationalist Party. This it will do through the agency of Adrian Delia.

The hysteria of his speech is archetypally fascist. Do not ignore this. It is also the hysteria of somebody driven by stress and panic. He has to become leader of the Nationalist Party. He has no choice. Ask yourselves why.

This whole scene is distasteful. Young, European-minded Maltese people – who voted Nationalist in the last general election – are repelled. Adrian Delia is the voice of disillusioned, inward-looking and troubled middle-aged people like himself. They are not enough to win a general election. They are not even enough to keep the Nationalist Party alive.