Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1514108
12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JANUARY 2024 EWROPEJ MALTA'S prospective line-up for the Eu- ropean elections will welcome a new crop of candidates in 2024 that as usual deliv- ers some outliers to this kind of election. With incumbents Alex Agius Saliba and Josianne Cutajar (Labour) and Roberta Metsola and David Casa (Nationalist Par- ty) seeking to increase vote counts and retain their MEP seats, a big deal of votes from the 2019 election are up for grabs with some MEPs calling it a day and other former MEPs having resigned their seat. For example, Miriam Dalli – elected in 2019 with over 63,000 first-count votes – is today government minister. Former La- bour prime minister Alfred Sant, who had over 26,000 first-count votes, will not be contesting the 2024 elections, and Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer (over 5,300 votes) is yet to officially confirm his intention. So, Labour will be opening up its Euro- pean ranks for quiet some renewal, but its line-up includes candidates already part and parcel of the party machine and its government establishment: these include former Mtarfa mayor Daniel Attard and Gudja mayor Marija Sarah Vella Gafà. A well-known addition is the econo- mist Clint Azzopardi Flores, currently a Bank of Valletta employee who in the past served as Malta's political and securi- ty committee ambassador to the EU, and president of the budget committee at the European Council during Malta's presi- dency. Flores is the husband of former ambas- sador to Brussels Ray Azzopardi, himself a former mainstay inside Labour's me- dia organisation One. With his personal livestreams on Facebook, Flores has built himself a reputation for geopolitical and EU analysis, imparting explainers on po- litical developments in Brussels which have been positively received by his social media followers. Daniel Attard, 31, was a former mayor of Mtarfa and served as deputy high com- missioner to the UK under former min- ister Manuel Mallia in his London post- ing. A law graduate, he was also a former communications coordinator for former minister Evarist Bartolo. Attard has also served as a technical attaché to the Inter- national Labour Organisation in Geneva, and then as a legal attaché in Brussels, af- ter a public call. Marija Sarah Vella Gafà, 28, is the cur- rent mayor of Gudja and serves as a policy consultant in the energy and environment ministry of Miriam Dalli. Her father Paul Vella serves as policy consultant at the strategy unit of Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi's ministry for public works and planning. A surprise addition is Jesmond Bonello, a former president of the Union Ħaddie- ma Magħqudin, certainly a union that is not Labour-affiliated. Today he is a direc- tor of regulatory compliance at the Foun- dation for Social Welfare Services. His 20-year background in trade unionism also saw him serve as a board director for the Occupational Health and Safety Au- thority, as well as the NSO's Retail Price Index board and the Employment Rela- tions Board. He also represented UĦM inside the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, as well as other EU fora. An 'outlier' to this line-up might be Ma- rie-Elise Agius, born 1987, a lawyer by practice who also owns a café. In 2013, she had been appointed to the board of directors of the Employment and Train- ing Corporation (now Jobsplus). Her personal Facebook profile shows photos taken during the Christmas hol- idays showing that she is in a personal relationship with construction developer Michael Bugeja. Indeed, she represented Bugeja's company Bilom Construction Limited in an industrial tribunal case concerning an unfair dismissal back in June 2021. With Labour's One News having also quoted Agius in soundbites propping up the administration's contractor licensing rules, this candidate might face questions over Labour's carefree association with the construction industry. Nationalist newcomers The Nationalist Party will see its strong incumbents Roberta Metsola, who is president of the European Parliament, and David Casa, eager to retain their strong showing. For Metsola, often touted as a poten- tial leader-in-waiting, her re-election is a foregone conclusion, which means many of the PN's candidates are hoping to be touched by the grace of her second-pref- erence votes or eat away at Casa's constit- uency of voters. Party machine faves and contractor's The 2024 elections opens Labour's MEP ranks to newcomers hungry for some 90,000 first-count votes last won by Miriam Dalli and Alfred Sant, while the PN hopes its third seat can come through with a fresh- faced line-up Clint Azzopardi Flores Clint Azzopardi Flores Mari Marija Sarah Vella Gafa' ja Sarah Vella Gafa' Jesmond Bonello Jesmond Bonello Daniel Attard Daniel Attard David Agius David Agius Loui Louise Anne Pulis se Anne Pulis Marie Elise Agius Marie Elise Agius