The lawyer Robert Abela was elected early this morning the new leader of the Labour Party of Malta and, therefore, will be the prime minister of the country after ousting Joseph Muscat, who resigned for the ties of one of his associates in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Abela beat that seemed to be the favorite Chris Fearne with the 57,9% of the votes of those affiliated to the party. Total voted 92.5% of the members and the winner was 9.342 votes with respect to the 6.798 of his opponent.
“I am grateful to my friend Chris (Fearne), and I look forward to working together for the good of the party and the country. Today there is only one winner: the Labour Party,” were the first words of Abela collected by the country’s media. Meanwhile, Muscat said on Twitter that he will be very proud to give his office the next Monday, when it is expected that Abela be sworn in as prime minister.
business Lawyer 42 years and parliamentarian from 2017 is the son of George Abela, another leading labour and also maltese prime minister from 2009 to 2014, when it was replaced by Muscat. That will be the new prime minister of Malta embodies the continuity of its predecessor, as Fearne had announced that it would apply many reforms.
Muscat announced his resignation on 1 December after his chief of staff and close friend, Keith Schembri, was accused of being the brain of the crime that ended the life of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, when it was investigating the nexus of corruption in the higher echelons of maltese. But he stuck to his post until Sunday in hopes that he could choose his replacement in the labour party and consequently as prime minister, something that added to harsh criticism from the opposition and also of groups in the European Parliament (EP), including the European people’s Party (EPP) and the liberals Renew Europe that demanded his immediate resignation.
