Labour MEP Miriam Dalli will accept co-option to Maltese parliament

Labour MEP Miriam Dalli has accepted to be co-opted into the House of Representatives, replacing former prime minister Joseph Muscat after his resignation from Parliament.

Muscat’s resignation paved the way for a casual election on the second district, but the only two candidates, Mark Causon and the former parliamentary secretary Stefan Buontempo, failed to submit their nominations.

The move will allow the Labour Party executive to officially nominate Miriam Dalli to be co-opted to the House.

An earlier attempt to convince Labour backbencher Etienne Grech to resign his seat in favour of Miriam Dalli failed.

But Cabinet sources yesterday said Dalli, a vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, had accepted to be co-opted.

Dalli is expected to be part of Abela's Cabinet but the portfolio she will be given is unclear. One source suggested she would have "a very high profile" in the Abela cabinet.

Until Muscat’s resignation in the wake of the Yorgen Fenech arrest, Dalli was considered to be a natural replacement for the PM with her profile in Brussels reaching new heights after last year's European Parliament election.

But the shock exit of Muscat in December 2019 opened a contest in which heavyweights Chris Fearne and the long-touted pretender Robert Abela moved in to go head-to-head.

MaltaToday understands that Prime Minister Robert Abela personally lobbied to convince Dalli to join him to be a senior figure in the run-up to next general election.

Dalli’s influence in the Cabinet could give Abela an ally, serving as counter-weight to the huge profile enjoyed by his former leadership rival, and deputy PM, Chris Fearne, the health minister who has shone throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dalli, 44, obtained 63,438 votes in the last European parliamentary elections in 2019. She has been an MEP since 2014, having previously served as One TV’s first female editor. A trailblazer for EU carbon emission rules, among her most notable contributions was her role in the Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automative Sector, after the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

Following the 2019 elections, Dalli was elected vice-chair of the S&D Group, under the leadership of chairwoman Iratxe García.