The Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, has announced his intention to appoint George Vella as the future President of the Republic.
In a video published on March 5, Muscat said that the nomination was unanimously supported by the entire Cabinet, as well as by the entire parliamentary group of the Labor Party. The Prime Minister defines George Vella as a man of undoubted integrity and whose political career has never been characterized by any controversy.
Geroge Vella, who will turn 77 years old in April, is a doctor by profession and has a long political career in the ranks of the Labour Party. He served as an MP from 1978 to 1981 and from 1987 until 2017, and held several prestigious positions: representative of Malta at the Council of Europe in 1987, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the periods 1996-1998 (also being Deputy Prime Minister) and 2013-2017.
Vella had been indicated as the front runner for the office of President of the Republic also five years ago, when then the choice of Muscat had fallen on the current President, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, whose term ends on April 4. April 4 became the day associated to the Presidency of the Republic, considering that the last six heads of state were awarded the office on the fourth day of the fourth month of the year.
For Malta, Vella will be the second President with a medical background, after Censu Tabone who had held the post between 1989 and 1994. All the other Presidents had, instead, a background in jurisprudence, like the same Coleiro Preca, public notary.
Coleiro Preca was publicly thanked by Muscat for the incessant work during his tenure. The Prime Minister said in a subsequent tweet, on behalf of the whole government, his satisfaction that the current President will continue to give her own contribution through the Foundation for Social Welfare.
Whie the nomination of George Vella has gathered unanimous consensus among the ranks of the Labor Party, it is not the case for the opposition. The Nationalist Party defined the decision of Muscat as an additional missed opportunity to overcome political differences and to appoint a figure able to gather the support of two thirds of the parliament. In the past months, the PN has repeatedly called Muscat to appoint a personality closer to their political stances, suggesting Lawrence Gonzi (former Nationalist Prime Minister), Tonio Borg (former Foreign Minister under the Gonzi government) and Louis Galea (former President of the Parliament during the Gonzi government).
(ITALPRESS/MNA)
