Robert Arrigo has decided to stay on as Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party, telling the Malta Independent that walking away now, in the current situation, is not an option.
He explained that the COVID-19 pandemic that has struck the island was the reason for him deciding to stay on.
“The virus situation changed the world. I had wished for a calmer Summer,” he said.
Last February, Arrigo had announced that he would resign by the end of March, and had at the time blasted the Parliamentary Group for making life “miserable”, with an intention to destroy rather than create. “Hatred is now ingrained. All strata of the party are contaminated,” he said last February, adding that Adrian Delia is a humane, bright, intelligent person who “had a tsunami against him”. At that time, the situation within the PN was quite heated.
Speaking with this newsroom on Friday, Arrigo said that the focus of the party will now be to pay wages, “as it did today, monthly, which is a challenge.”
“We are hoping to hold a fund raising marathon in June. We were meant to have one this weekend, but it was the second one we had to cancel over the past nine months. The marathons are our lifeline. Walking away now as Deputy Leader was not an option at this time.”