Malta’s first Nationalist Party woman MP, Ann Agius Ferrante, died on Thursday aged 97.

Her death was announced on Facebook by EP President Roberta Metsola.

Metsola described Agius Ferrante as trailblazing and formidable, "a powerhouse of integrity and wit".

"The very first thing I did when I was elected as the European Parliament's First Vice-President was to write to her. I thanked her for making the path easier, for enduring so that my generation would not have to, and to promise her that I will play my part in making it easier for those who come after me. A grateful Malta will miss her. May she rest in peace," Metsola wrote.

Agius Ferrante was the daughter of a former attorney general, Sir Philip Pullicino. She was elected on the PN ticket in 1980 in a casual election, following the death of former prime minister Ġorġ Borg Olivier.

Agius Ferrante had two children, Susan Zammit Tabona and Timothy.

Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said that Agius Ferrante was an inspiration to women who wanted to take an active part in politics.

Born in Mdina, Agius Ferrante studied at St Dorothy's Convent and at the Sacred Heart School.

She contested the election for the PN in 1976, 1981 and 1986.

She was president of the PN's Rabat sectional committee and international secretary (1977) and became president of the MNPN in 1980.

She was Island Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association between 1957 and 1960.

Source: Dictionary of Maltese Biographies, Michael J. Schiavone