‘Listening to the people’: Opposition leader’s wife spends as much as 10 weeks state pension on outfit for swearing-in ceremony

The outfit which Mrs Adrian Delia wore to watch her husband sworn in as Opposition leader at the Palace in Valletta last Friday cost €1,070 – €695 for the dress and €375 for the shoes.

Both were purchased from the Elisabetta Franchi shop in Sliema’s Bisazza Street, which is owned by the Dizz Group, where the photographs below were taken for this website.

The heavy wool dress, which incorporates a faux-fur stole, is part of the new cold-weather collection but Mrs Delia wore it on a day when the temperature reached 25C. She kept the outfit on for her appearance on the television show Xarabank later that evening, halving the ‘cost per wear’.

The total price of her outfit for that day is the equivalent of what married pensioners have to live on for 10 weeks. The price tag did not deter Dr and Mrs Delia, who have no money in the bank and who are living off credit cards and bank overdrafts, while they owe €1 million in personal and household debts and owe a further €7.3 million to HSBC Bank, jointly and severally with others (which means that the bank can foreclose on them alone) on a loan taken out 11 years ago for a failed building development venture in Mgarr, Gozo.

Dr Delia sought election by arguing that he does not live in an ivory tower but mixes with ordinary people and is one of them, and so will listen to the concerns and feel the pain of the man in the street.

The Elisabetta Franchi shop in Sliema’s Bisazza Street, where Mrs Delia bought her dress and shoes for more than a thousand euros.