Alfred Sant will be contesting the upcoming MEP elections, confirming the news on Facebook on Wednesday.

The Labour MEP’s appointment was seconded by Helena Dalli, Joe Debono Grech and Tommy Dimech.  Sant, who served as Prime Minister between 1996 and 1998, was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 having obtained 48,739 votes.

His decision comes hot on the heels of a public appeal by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who told Sant last Sunday that the party and the country needed an MEP like him. 

Sant later that day said that it was difficult to ignore such a call to action, but had still not made his decision.

On Tuesday, PN candidate Peter Agius urged Sant to contest saying Sant has done "a lot of good because he put emphasis on measures of interest to Malta and also changed certain decisions to be better adaptable to us."