The government is this week expected to announce the nomination of Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca as Malta’s ninth President.
Discussions between Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Ms Coleiro Preca, who was initially reluctant to take on the post, were concluded by mid last week but Dr Muscat was on his way back from a trip to Rome yesterday and the announcement is expected to be made in the coming days.
The talks explored the possibility of giving the President more of a guardianship role on social issues like poverty and social exclusion.
Ms Coleiro Preca has declined to comment throughout the week after The Sunday Times of Malta revealed she was the frontrunner for the nomination.
A stalwart who was elected Labour general secretary at 21, Ms Coleiro Preca will be the youngest person to be made President at the age of 55 and also the second woman nominated for the post after Agatha Barbara.
Party sources said she was not keen on the position when the Prime Minister first proposed the appointment given her age and her commitment to her political portfolio.
However, the matter was settled after further discussions last week.
‘No rift as such with the PM’
The news also received mixed reactions within Labour’s rank and file. Labour MPs who spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta after the news was broken said they could not understand the move, especially seeing Ms Coleiro Preca’s popularity at the polls.
Former Labour minister Lino Spiteri openly criticised the move as a “mistake”, arguing that she was the Cabinet’s “most respected member” and “a champion of the underprivileged”.
But those disappointed most about her departure from the Cabinet seem to be the people working in the field of refugee protection, who saw in the Social Solidarity Minister a socially-minded antidote to the security-focused approach of Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia to immigration.
“Frankly, we were hoping she would be given immigration or a more decisive role in that portfolio in the upcoming reshuffle. Instead she is being removed,” a representative from an NGO that works with refugees told The Sunday Times of Malta.
“She has been a consistent compassionate ear on immigration, contrasting the hardline feedback we got from Manuel Mallia,” the source said.
Not on the same page politically as Muscat
Labour sources speculated that this could be one of the factors that led the Prime Minister to choose Ms Coleiro Preca.
“There is no rift as such, and the Prime Minister had been saying all along that he felt it was time for a woman to be President, but I suspect that a motivating factor behind this move is that Marie-Louise and the Prime Minister are not quite on the same page, politically, on a number of issues,” the source said.
Others argued that the choice was driven by the fact that the outgoing President George Abela, “will be a hard act to follow”.
The oath of office is expected to be held on April 4.
The appointment of Ms Coleiro Preca will formally open the door to a Cabinet reshuffle hinted to already by the Prime Minister last month. Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Franco Mercieca is also expected to leave the front bench after he signalled his wish to continue with his ophthalmic career.
Hailing from Qormi, also the hometown of President George Abela, Ms Coleiro Preca spent all her adult life in politics.
Besides having served as general secretary between 1982 and 1991, she was also president of the women’s section of the Labour Party before being elected to Parliament in 1998.
Ms Coleiro Preca, who is married with one daughter, has been returned to Parliament in every election since then. She unsuccessfully contested the election for the party leadership in 2008 following Alfred Sant’s resignation.