Norman Vella resigns from PN after party reintegrates Schiavone

Norman Vella said last night that he was resigning from the Nationalist Party – as a candidate, councillor and member – following the party’s decision to reintegrate Herman Schiavone after ruling there had been no breach party ethics when he met Yorgen Fenech to seek sponsorship for a conference.

In a post on Facebook, Vella said that in the 2017 election, the fifth district was the only one where the PN increased its number of seats. This was after Schiavone inherited 1,667 votes from Vella.

“I know what I told and promised those voters on a party and personal level. I know the reasons why they showed confidence in me and why they preferred to vote for me before continuing on other candidates in spite of contesting the election for the first time. These are the same reasons why I challenged Joseph Muscat at a great personal sacrifice, joined the party at the its worst time after the 2013 election, gave four years of work and also contested the European Parliament election, obtaining more than 7,000 first preference votes,” Vella wrote.

“As such, I would be going against myself and all those who showed confidence in me if I do not express my anger following the decision taken by the party that goes against what we worked for and voted for two years ago,” Vella said.

At the same time, he said he recognised the right that the party leadership and its structures had to take decisions they thought were the best and lead the party in the direction they wanted.

“Considering all this, I decided to take the gentlemanly way forward and resign from candidate, councillor and member,” Vella wrote.

He thanked all those who helped him on his political journey, which in spite of its disappointments, was a learning process and allowed him to meet extraordinary people.

MP Hermann Schiavone had suspended himself from the PN and requested that he is investigated for his behaviour when it was reported he had met Yorgen Fenech.

Fenech’s name was thrust into the limelight when it was reported that he was the owner of 17 Black, a company which was named as one of two which would pay 2 million euros into the Panama companies owned by Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.