PN executive approves David Agius candidature for MEP

Former PN deputy leader David Agius has won approval from his party’s exeutive committee to run for the European Parliament elections in 2024.

Agius, a former Net TV anchor who later became MP, will bid for the PN grassroots voter in the hope of securing a third seat from the six European Parliament seats allocated to Malta. 

Agius has been elected to Malta’s parliament in the last five general elections but should he be elected to the EP, he would have to choose between the European or national parliament seats because he cannot hold both.  

The PN lost its third seat in the 2019 election, which Labour won with 54.2% of the vote (141,000). The PN got 98,611, equivalent to 37.9% – its worst-ever showing at the polls – under former leader Adrian Delia, whom Agius served as deputy leader for parliamentary affairs.

Turnout in 2019 dipped by more than two percentage points when compared to the 2014 EP election, with roughly 100,000 registered voters – 27.3% – not bothering to vote. But the most significant dip was in PN-leaning districts.

Agius is also vice president of the workers’ section within the European People’s Party, a position he has held for the last 15 years.

The PN executive so far has approved the candidature of European Parliament president Roberta Metsola and incumbent David Casa, as well as lawyer Peter Agius, who also contested the last round of MEP elections, obtaining 10,500 votes.

Peter Agius, 43, previously headed the Office of the EU parliament in Malta and served in the cabinet of former European parliament president Antonio Tajani.