Labour’s most popular candidate, Alex Agius Saliba is the only sitting PL MEP who will be contesting in the June MEP elections. Photo: Alex Agius Saliba
Agius Saliba kicked off his current electoral campaign with a lavish rally at Tritons Square with high-profile speakers including former minister Joseph Muscat.
In March 2024, Saliba was one of 20 MEPs who were given a “Rising Star” award at The Parliament Magazine’s annual MEP awards.
Daniel Attard
Former Mtarfa mayor and lawyer by profession, Daniel Attard is a newbie throwing his hat for the European Parliament elections.
He served as deputy high commissioner to the UK, including some months as Chargé d’Affaires. The 31-year-old was also communications coordinator for former minister Evarist Bartolo.
Clint Azzopardi Flores
Brussels is a familiar place for this economist, who served at Malta House in Brussels for eight years.
In 2013, he worked in the European Parliament, and a year later was employed by the government as a budget and economy attaché in Malta’s permanent representation office.
Earlier this year, he launched his campaign based on four pillars – the economy, social welfare, the quality of life and diplomacy.
His husband, Ray Azzopardi, is the former ambassador to Belgium and was also the head of Malta’s mission to NATO.
Thomas Bajada
Thomas Bajada, a fisheries technocrat, is Labour’s only Gozitan candidate after Josianne Cutajar surprisingly announced earlier this year that she would not be seeking re-election.
The 29-year-old is the government’s technical attaché on fisheries at the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union and over the past four years also represented Malta in negotiations related to the aquaculture industry.
Jesmond Bonello
Bonello, a newcomer to the MEP elections, was president of the UĦM – Voice of the Workers union for nine years, and in total, served for more than 20 years at the union in different roles.
He is currently the director of regulatory compliance at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS), focusing on the Social Care Standards Authority (SCSA) and the Health & Safety of all FSWS premises.
Steve Ellul
A financial analyst and lecturer at the University of Malta, Ellul is best known as the former CEO of Project Green.
During his time as the new agency’s head, Ellul was tasked with implementing the government’s ambitious €700 million green projects, while on a €81,000 pay package.
Yet, his role was short-lived, when just a year after the agency was launched, the Labour Party approved Ellul as a candidate for the European Parliament elections back in January.
Jesmond Marshall
Another trade unionist, Jesmond Marshall worked in several hotels until 1984 when he joined the medical sector as a health assistant. He is the secretary of the metal and construction section of the General Workers’ Union.
Marshall has been active in the Labour Party from the age of 15, when he joined the Għaqda Żgħażagħ Soċjalisti in Santa Luċija. In 1996 he started working at the shipyard, however, in 2003, he was one of the 900 workers who was made redundant.
Marija Sara Vella Gafa
Vella Gafa, 28, is the mayor of Gudja and worked as a lawyer for the Lands Authority. The youngest PL MEP candidate, she works at the Environment Ministry.
PN: Eight candidates
David Agius
Agius is the only serving MP who is seeking election as an MEP. Should he be elected he will have to choose between the two positions. He was first elected as an MP in 2003 and secured re-election in the next four general elections.
He has held various posts within the PN, including deputy leader and currently also serves as parliament’s Deputy Speaker and shadow minister for social welfare.
PN are hoping that Agius will help win back votes from the party grassroots, particularly those who supported former PN leader Adrian Delia.
Peter Agius
This will be Agius’ second run in the European elections after he missed out on election in 2019. A lawyer by profession, Agius headed the Office of the EU Parliament in Malta and worked as a speechwriter for former EU president Antonio Tajani.
He has been vocal on several issues in recent months, from a war of words with Alex Agius Saliba over the latter’s claims of abusive food monopolies, to a complaint to the European Commission by Ħal Farruġ residents over massive aviation fuel tanks close to their homes in Luqa.
Agius recently got into hot water after an unsubstantiated claim that a sheep farm in Għajn Riħana was actually a villa built through EU funds.
A recent Times of Malta poll suggested that Agius is the PN’s second-placed candidate at the moment, trailing Roberta Metsola.
Lee Bugeja Bartolo
A former Partit Demokratiku candidate, 33-year-old aerospace engineer Lee Bugeja Bartolo is pledging to push for EU funding for the seemingly shelved metro project.
Bugeja Bartolo was one of two PD candidates who attempted to block the election of former PN leader Adrian Delia to parliament through a casual election in late 2017.
He made headlines in recent weeks after he dismissed European attempts to enshrine abortion as a fundamental right as “bollocks”, prompting pro-choice activists to call out “misogyny” in local politics.
Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto
The PN’s youngest name on the ballot, Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto recently stepped down from the helm of MŻPN, the party’s youth wing after graduating as a lawyer.
Under her watch, MŻPN launched projects dealing with mental health, with Calleja Testaferrata de Noto herself frequently opening up about her own difficulties after the untimely death of her mother as well as her childhood struggles with eating disorders.
Norma Camilleri
PN’s only Gozitan candidate, Camilleri is a speech-language pathologist who serves as CEO of the Malta Federation of Professional Associations and as president of both the European and Maltese associations for speech and language therapy.
As a newcomer to party politics, this is the first time that Camilleri has taken an active role in an election campaign.
David Casa
Malta’s longest-serving MEP, Casa was first elected in Malta’s very first EP elections in 2004 and has held on to his seat ever since. He was elected as one of the European Parliament’s quaestors in 2019, a role he had to give up two years later to pave the way for Roberta Metsola to take on the role of EP president.
Casa’s work in the most recent legislature included setting up the EU’s social climate fund and piloting a work-life balance directive.
In 2020, Melvin Theuma claimed that Yorgen Fenech paid then-Opposition leader Adrian Delia to stop Casa from getting elected in 2019, prompting a magisterial inquiry into the matter. The claims were denied.
Roberta Metsola
The PN will be banking on Metsola, the European Parliament’s president, to lead the pack. Metsola has contested every MEP election held in Malta so far, missing out on getting elected in 2004 and 2009, before making her way to parliament in 2013 when she took over Simon Busuttil’s vacant seat.
She cruised to re-election in both 2014 and 2019, winning over 38,000 first-count votes.
Her meteoric rise in European politics culminated in her being named the first vice-president of the European Parliament in 2020 and eventually taking the top job two years later.
Louise Anne Pulis
Having made her name as a lawyer, this is Pulis’ first foray into politics. Her legal work included signing judicial protests opposing the introduction of the morning-after pill and objecting to the removal of former Planning Commission chair Simon Saliba.
Pulis’ campaign has focused on infrastructural and environmental issues. She has repeatedly slammed the government’s poor infrastructural planning, arguing that never-ending roadworks are eroding people’s quality of life and impacting air quality around the island.
ADPD: Four candidates
Ralph Cassar
Cassar is a veteran of green politics, having been a member of the Green Party in its various guises since the early 1990s.
He was a long-standing member of Attard’s local council, and is now ADPD’s secretary general. He has been on AD’s list in every general election since 1996, garnering just short of 800 first-count votes in his most recent showing in 2022. However, this will be his first stab at a seat in the European Parliament.
Rachelle Deguara
A first-time candidate, Deguara made her name in Malta’s alternative scene as an artist, rapper (going by the stage name REA) and youth activist, as the co-chair of Alternattiva Demokratika’s youth wing and member of activist group Young Progressive Beings.
She is well known in literary circles, having hosted the literature-themed radio show Taħt il-Qoxra and served on the local jury for the EU Prize for Literature.
Sandra Gauci
This will be Gauci’s first campaign as ADPD leader, having taken over the reins of the party from Carmel Cacopardo a year ago, making her only the third woman in Malta’s history to lead a political party.
This isn’t her first stint as a candidate. Gauci was on the ADPD ticket during the 2022 general election, garnering 600 first-count votes.
A teacher by profession, Gauci says fighting corruption and promoting the environment and mobility are her top priorities. She has vowed to rebrand the party after the elections but will be hoping that her no-nonsense approach to politics will make inroads with disenfranchised voters this June.
Mina Jack Tolu
Tolu made a name as a trans activist, campaigning for LGBTQI rights locally and as a committee member of the European Green Party.
This is Tolu’s second run for MEP, having obtained a respectable 845 first-count votes in 2019. A later run for a seat in Malta’s parliament in 2022 was less successful, garnering under 200 votes.
ABBA: Two candidates
Ivan Grech Mintoff
Leader of the Christian-conservative party ABBA, Ivan Grech Mintoff previously served as the chairman of the Alliance of Change, forming ABBA in 2021.
He contested the general elections last year. He also previously contested the 2014 (1,015 votes) and 2019 (1,186 votes) European elections for the party Allenza Bidla.
Antonia Gauci
Antonia, Tania, Gauci, also contested last year’s general election. In a Facebook post, Gauci said she wants to be a voice of protection for children and a voice for “every unborn human being”. The party is known for its far-right ideology and being anti-abortion.
Volt: One candidate
Matthias Iannis Portelli
Matthias Iannis Portelli is a 21-year-old student He joined Volt Malta and Volt Europa in 2020, serving in different roles including Policy Leading, and in December 2022, was elected as the vice-president of Volt Malta.
Imperium Europa: Two candidates
Norman Lowell
One of the most recognisable – and controversial – names on the ballot, Lowell first became a household name in the run-up to the 2004 MEP elections with a series of outlandish claims about several issues, from migration to eugenics and holocaust denial.
In 2008 he was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and handed a suspended two-year jail term.
Despite this, he has contested every MEP election since 2004, increasing his vote tally at each turn. He obtained over 8,000 first-count votes in 2019, making Imperium Europa Malta’s third-largest party.
He will be hoping to channel anger over migration, the top concern for Maltese voters, into votes for his party.
Terrence Portelli
Imperium Europa’s younger face, Portelli banks on the experience gathered through his day job as a manager at Malta’s Asset Recovery Bureau to focus on economic and financial issues, frequently leaning into well-trodden conspiracy theories about a new world order controlling global markets.
Independent candidates: 13 candidates
Noel Apap
Apap contested last year’s general election, also as an independent candidate. Back then, his main focus was on illegal migration, and he also called for less development.
Malcolm Bezzina
Malcom Bezzina, a former Partit Demokratiku candidate, and also a former PN candidate, is now trying his luck as an independent candidate.
Back in 2022, Bezzina told Times of Malta, that he learnt his lesson after being bitten as a voter. He said he voted Labour in 2013, because he was promised assistance with an operation he needed overseas.
“I never got assistance from the government with my operation, and my parents had to sell a property to afford it,” he had said.
Nazareno Bonnici
Nazareno Bonnici, better known as Żaren Bonnici, is a perfect example of never giving up, even as an independent candidate, as this will be the eighth time he will be contesting an election.
The independent candidate who goes by the name tal-Ajkla, first contested the 2003 general elections, where he managed to obtain just 20 votes.
Yet, despite the lack of votes Żaren has a grip on the public’s attention, many of whom would find his speeches entertaining and colourful.
Conrad Borg Manché
PL Gżira mayor Borg Manché fell out with his party over environmental issues and resigned from the party last October.
He served as Gżira mayor for nine years and will be contesting both the MEP and local council elections in June.
Arnold Cassola
Will this be a fifth time lucky for veteran politician Arnold Cassola, to gain a seat at the European Parliament this June?
Back in 2019, Cassola resigned from then Alternattiva Demokratika, a party which he led for several years, after he strongly disagreed with the party’s executive over abortion. That was the first year he decided to contest as an independent candidate for the European Parliament elections.
In the 2004 European Parliament elections, Cassola obtained 9.33% (or 23,000 votes) of the first-preference votes, just failing to be elected one of Malta’s five MEPs. During last year’s general election, Cassola obtained over 900 votes.
Alexander D’Agata
During the 2022 general elections, D’agata was a candidate for Partit Popolari.
Radu Gheorghe
Gheorghe had contested the general elections in 2022 on the Partit Abba ticket, yet this time he is contesting for the European elections as an independent candidate.
George Grixti
Information not available.
Stephen Florian
During the 2022 general elections, Florian was Partit Poplari’s Gozitan candidate, yet this time round, he is trying his luck for a seat at the European Parliament as an independent candidate.
Back in 2016, Florian resigned from his position as a part-time University lecturer after his comments outing a transgender person on Facebook raised an uproar. At the time, Florian was part of the right-wing populist group Moviment Patrijotti Maltin.
Simon Mercieca
Blogger and a professor in History at the University of Malta, Simon Mercieca will also be contesting as part of a group of independent candidates.
His nomination was signed by former PN minister John Dalli, who spent two years as European Commissioner for Health and resigned in 2012 in the wake of the snus tobacco scandal.
Announcing his candidacy in a blog post, Mercieca said he will be “joined and supported” by other independent candidates, Alexander D’Agata and Radu Gheorghe.
His blog is fuelled by conservative right-wing and anti-vaccination comments, and he often names himself as an “anti-woke” campaigner.
Yet his comments have landed him in hot water on numerous occasions.
In March, the Archbishop’s Curia twice, flatly denied claims made in Merceica’s blog post.
Andrea Prudente, the US tourist who in 2022 was airlifted from Malta to Spain for a termination when her waters broke in early pregnancy, also filed a lawsuit against Mercieca.
James Michael Muscat
What was first considered an April Fools, comedian James Michael Muscat, better known by his stage name James Ryder, announced he was contesting the European elections.
Yet, a day later, he confirmed that his slogan ‘We’ve had worse’ was not a prank, but that he did indeed intend to run as an independent candidate.
According to his campaign website- seriouspolitician.com- Ryder has three key promises: to listen, to learn and to make you laugh.
Will Ryder be the first comedian to represent Malta in Brussels? Only time will tell.
Edwin Vassallo
Former Nationalist parliamentary secretary and former Mosta mayor Edwin Vassallo is best known as being the only MP who opposed the introduction of same-sex marriages in 2017 and voted against the domestic violence bill in 2018, raising concerns about references to gender which he said tried to paint over differences between men and women.
He also apologised for having shared a Facebook post warning about bananas being injected with HIV-infected blood back in 2019.
Adrian Zammit
Best known for his social media videos, Adrian Zammit, who hails from Marsa, surprised voters after he decided to submit his nomination on the first day of candidate submissions.
Zammit, better known as il-Bebbuxu, is a social media personality who often films long Facebook live videos. In such videos, he often shares his opinion on current affairs, while eating and drinking in his kitchen.
Source link : https://timesofmalta.com/article/who-malta-39-mep-candidates.1091721
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Publish date : 2024-04-29 07:00:00
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