Adrian Delia and the PN have questioned whether energy subsidies should continue in the long term.

Byron Camilleri

Verdict Open to interpretation

In April, Delia said that under a PN government, cheaper energy would eventually make subsidies unnecessary, and wrote that their sustainability was in question. He has also backed keeping them as a "national commitment". Labour reads the first as a difference in principle. Delia reads it as an ambition, not a plan to withdraw them.How we reached this verdict ↓

Analysis and evaluation

During the Budget debate, Byron Camilleri argued that Adrian Delia and the Nationalist Party had questioned the long-term continuation of energy subsidies. Delia responded that the PN was proposing better management, not their removal.

Both positions have a factual basis.

What Delia has said

On 8 April 2026, MaltaToday reported Delia as saying that energy subsidies should remain a "national commitment". The paper read it as the opposition endorsing the policy before the election.

Three weeks later, on 28 April, Delia said that under a PN government energy prices would fall so far that state subsidies would no longer be necessary, as reported by Lovin Malta. In an opinion piece the same week, reported by talk.mt, he wrote that the subsidies raise many questions about their sustainability, and that a resilient economy cannot depend on emergency measures.

Two readings of the same record

The disagreement is therefore largely one of interpretation. Labour presents the PN's long-term ambition to reduce reliance on subsidies as a difference in principle. Delia distinguishes that ambition from a proposal to withdraw them.

Neither interpretation tells the full story on its own. Delia has questioned whether the subsidies can last and said a PN government would make them unnecessary. He has also backed keeping them, and we found no statement in which he proposed removing them.

Editorial note

How we assessed this claim

We looked for Adrian Delia's public statements on energy subsidies in 2026, in news reports and his own writing.

We compared what he said with both readings given on the programme: Byron Camilleri's, that the PN questioned the subsidies' long-term future, and Delia's, that the PN proposed better management rather than removal.

Open to interpretation, because the record supports both readings and neither is complete without the other.

Limitations

The statements come from news reports, which paraphrase Delia in places rather than quote him in full.
We looked at Delia's statements, not every PN statement on subsidies. Spunt's earlier fact check on the PN's consistency on subsidies covers Alex Borg's statements.