Former Prime Minister Joesph Muscat has taken to social media to defend the gender quota mechanism in place for Parliament as well as proposing that the Presidency role in Malta would alternate between a man and a woman. 

With 22 women now in Parliament as a result of the mechanism, female representation has been boosted to 29% rather than the usual 10%-14%. Muscat called this a great improvement on the usual seminars which take place in order to discuss solutions to increase female representation. 

With regards to his Presidency proposal, Muscat stated that “rather than having a female president once every 30 years only to make a statement, proper change is needed, and this is a change which should make the Labour Party proud of itself.” 

As stated above, the gender quota has provided the opportunity for 22 women to be elected in parliament. This results in 29% of all members of parliament. “This percentage is closer to the minimum ideal of 33% than we ever were. The equal representation percentage would be of 40% but when one considers that the median average since the 90’s was less than 16%, it is a great improvement.” 

In his social media post, Muscat also took aim at misogynistic comments whenever the topic of female representation comes up. “Comments like ‘women of substance’ in politics were part of the yearly recipe whenever Woman’s Day came around, it is as though all men have substance.” 

Reflecting on the Labour Party and its history with gender quotas, Muscat said that former Prime Minister Alfred Sant had tried to enact the change needed to tackle this issue 25 years ago but he wasn’t in government long enough to see it through. 

“The fact that Malta did not have a Labour government for numerous generations, the changes needed took 30 years too long to come into force. Sant was at the forefront of this change and thanks to him the Labour Party does not need any mechanisms to elect female executive members within the party.” 

Muscat then shed light to when he was Prime Minister and found little support to enact the gender mechanism quota back then. “Men were scared of losing their place in Parliament and they did not fully understand that women would not be replacing men but be equal to them.” 

“I had met with all the Labour Party MP’s and my belief was always that no one should alter the people’s choice in the elections but would simple add MP’s and also that this is not simply a women’s quota but a gender quota.” 

In a final statement, Muscat thanked various MP’s who in the previous legislature helped to put this mechanism into circulation. The names included were Helena Dalli, Julia Farrugia Portelli, Miriam Dalli and Rosianne Cutajar from the political side of things and Jonathan Attard and Austin Bencini from the legal side.