It is a sense of unburdening, President George Vella said on Thursday morning as he left San Anton Palace for the last time as Malta’s Head of State.

Vella will later today relinquish his duties at the end of his five-year term in office to be substituted by Myriam Spiteri Debono.

Speaking to TVM before he left the Palace, Vella said that his departure from the presidency gives him a sense of unburdening as he will no longer carry so much responsibility.

At the same time, he said he will miss the staff with whom he lived in the last five years. They became part of the family, he said.

His wife Miriam Vella also had words of praise for the staff at the palace.