Karmenu Vella

Tourism Minister to EU Commissioner

A member of the Labour Party's March 2013 Cabinet, veteran Labour politician Karmenu Vella was nominated Malta's European Commissioner as part of the 29 March 2014 Cabinet reshuffle, spurred by the appointment of Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca to the presidency and the surprise resignation of then Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia.  

First elected to Parliament in 1976, he had served in the House for 38 consecutive years, and in government as Public Works Minister, Industry Minister, and as Tourism Minister between 1996 and 1998 and again between 2013 and 2014. Dr Vella was confirmed as European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in September.

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca

Family and Social Solidarity Minister to President

You can't get kicked upstairs any higher than Marie Louise Coleiro Preca who was sworn in as President of the Republic last April. Before that she had served as Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity for a little over a year and had commanded great grassroots support.

Another Labour veteran, Mrs Coleiro Preca has served as a member of the National Executive, as Assistant General Secretary and as General Secretary of the party between 1982 and 1991. She also served as MP from 1998 to 2014.

Anglu Farrugia

PL Deputy Leader to Speaker of the House

While not a March 2013 Cabinet member, former Labour Party Deputy Leader, another long standing Labour Party stalwart, resigned in December 2012 from the post in the wake of derogatory comments he made about the judiciary.

In April 2013, just after the general election, Dr Farrugia was made Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was first elected to Parliament in 1996, and was re-elected in 1998, 2003 and in 2008.

Godfrey Farrugia

Health Minister to backbencher

On 29 March, former Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia surprised the country with his sudden resignation from his post, and in the process he catalysed the Prime Minister into an early reshuffle of the Cabinet that same day. Godfrey Farrugia was a new face to the Cabinet and to Maltese politics, and was appointed Health Minister in the first Cabinet line-up. Following his resignation, his outspoken partner and fellow PL backbencher Marlene Farrugia began taking her criticisms of the current Labour government to new levels.

Manuel Mallia

Home Affairs, National Security and Public Broadcasting Minister to backbencher

Once the Labour Party's so-called star candidate in the last general election, given his background as a former Nationalist Party supporter, Manuel Mallia was dismissed from Cabinet this week after failing to take up the Prime Minister's offer to resign gracefully after being implicated in a cover-up of his driver's by now infamous misdeeds on 19 November. Apart from his letter to the Prime Minister last Wednesday explaining his absence from a parliamentary debate about the incident, in which he said he was medically indisposed, nothing has been heard from the renowned criminal lawyer and the favourite bête noir of Opposition politicians, since.

Franco Mercieca

Parliamentary Secretary for Disability Rights and Active Ageing to backbencher

Gozitan ophthalmologist Franco Mercieca had found himself on the receiving end of a lot flack between his appointment to Cabinet in March 2013 as Parliamentary Secretary for Disability Rights and Active Ageing and his resignation in March 2014. Dr Mercieca had been allowed to continue his private practice despite the ministerial code of conduct precluding such a dual role for members of Cabinet. It emerged on the day of the 29 March Cabinet reshuffle that he had, in fact, tendered his resignation from Cabinet some weeks before.

Muscat's PN recruits

John Dalli, Mater Dei consultant

Former Nationalist Minister John Dalli had served separately as Finance, Foreign Affairs and Health Minister. He had famously described his appointment by former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi as Malta's EU Commissioner as a 'five year sentence' - which did not quite last the full term after the snus scandal - and has not been short on vitriol for his former Nationalist Party.

Mr Dalli was brought on board as a Labour government consultant tasked with drawing up a detailed report on the running of Mater Dei Hospital, a position he no longer holds, nor is it known what became of the several recommendations he had made in his report, which highlighted gross failures in containing expenditures at the hospital.

Franco Debono

Shortly after the election of the Labour Party to government, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat appointed former Nationalist Party MP Franco Debono as Law Commissioner, undoubtedly much to the consternation of the Nationalist Party. Dr Debono had brought down the last PN government and played a major role in the turmoil experienced by the party during the last year of its legislature.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando

Blacklisted by the Nationalist Party - as were Franco Debono and Jesmond Mugliett - the once rising Nationalist star MP had resigned from the Nationalist Party in July 2012 and served the rest of the legislature as an independent MP. Since the Labour Party came to power in March 2013, Dr Pullicino Orlando - who also serves as chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, a post he gained under the Nationalist Party and where he still serves under Labour - has not been short on his criticism of the Nationalist Party.

Following his appearance on Xarabank last Friday as a Labour Party Representative during a programme about Malliagate, he can very well be considered as a Labour Party recruit.