Eighteen days after declaring she will not contest the next general election, Labour MP Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca has changed her mind.
It appears that support from her constituents had a lot to do with her decision: “I cannot ignore the tremendous support and solidarity that the electorate of the sixth district, as well as hundreds of other Maltese and Gozitans, showed me and my family throughout these past weeks,” she wrote in a press statement.
Ms Coleiro Preca, a former party general secretary, had on June 2 said she would not contest the election following threats and intimidation in her family’s regard.
Her reconsideration comes after a number of petitions were organised in Qormi, Siġġiewi and Luqa, where she is a hugely popular MP. In the last election, Ms Coleiro Preca was the first candidate to be declared elected with 5,490 first count votes and was the Labour candidate with most votes after the Labour leader. In the 2003 general election, she was elected from the same district with 4,439 votes and in 1998, with 2,205 votes.
When contacted by The Times, she admitted making plans for her retirement, joking that she would finally get her life back.
“But I could not ignore all the pressure from my constituents. By the time I got to know about the petitions, thousands had signed.”
In her statement she spoke of being urged by thousands of families from that district to reconsider and this made her reflect deeply about her decision.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat had also urged her to remain part of the team for the next election and made public comments confirming she did not breach party lines when she spoke against divorce and said she would abstain from the vote in Parliament.
“I need to thank Dr Muscat for having such faith in me but also because his consistent way of doing politics continues to make me proud of being a Labourite.”
She said some Nationalist Party exponents tried to take advantage of her to mask the mistake their party made when it turned divorce into a partisan issue and did not trust its MPs and supporters to decide on the basis of their own conscience.
While Labour speaks fearlessly, the PN follows with opportunistic politics, changing like a wind vane. “This is why I am proud of having militated in the Labour Party for 36 years and I confirm that I will continue to do so in the coming years, working towards the values of social and economic justice.”