Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1538322
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 AUGUST 2025 INTERVIEW Edward Zammit Lewis: 'Robert Abela was wrong to leave me out of Cabinet' EDWARD Zammit Lewis isn't afraid to speak his mind. He was the only MP to defy Robert Abela's stance on Manoel Island before the prime min- ister changed tack. More recently, he said the government was wrong to table two planning bills in parlia- ment without any sort of prior con- sultation. When I sit down with him at his Valletta office, he tells me it's time for MPs to feel that they can speak their mind if it means changing something for the better. He encourages his fel- low MPs without a Cabinet role—he doesn't like the term 'backbencher'— to criticise the government construc- tively, and says that Abela is a respon- sive and accessible leader. He praises Abela for his leadership, but reveals that he felt it unjust to be left out of the Cabinet after the 2022 general election. He feels that he has more to give to the political scene and is eager to contest the next election. When talking about his leaked chats with Yorgen Fenech, he says he knew the businessman but always managed any potential conflicts of interest that could arise. Fenech never asked anything of him, and the chats were motivated by concern after someone told him Fenech was passing through a rough patch. At the time it was not public knowledge that Fenech was be- ing suspected of involvement in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder. And regarding that Ġaħan quip, he says his track record should be judged by his work in the Labour Party and in government, not by a one-off remark when he was upset about his personal electoral result from 2017. Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis was made a parliamentary secretary when he was elected in 2013. Almost 10 years later, he was snubbed from a Cabinet role. He sits down with Nicole Meilak to talk about constructive criticism in Labour, his Yorgen Fenech chats, and that 'Laburist Ġaħan' remark I speak quite a bit in parliament on drafts and motions that maybe others would not want to talk about on the government side. I defend the government's ideas but when there's criticism to be made, I will do so.