Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is considering a return to politics, showing interest in a possible candidacy for the European Parliament elections in comments he gave to MaltaToday, stopping short of giving a definite answer.

MaltaToday asked Muscat whether he would contest this year’s MEP election following mass speculation and rumours which manifested in a number of social media posts on Facebook.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Muscat said that a post by his friend Manuel Cuschieri asking whether Muscat should contest had caught him off guard. “This is not a decision that is to be taken in a small amount of time because of a few Facebook messages.”

Saying that his focus was “elsewhere” Muscat did not rule out the possibility. “I don’t exclude it like I do not exclude dying tonight,” he teased.

However, he added: “I cannot ignore the people.” A return to the European Parliament was “not a priority”, he said but something he “will think about.”

MaltaToday also asked whether anyone from Labour’s administration had approached him. “Many people have spoken to me,” he said but when pressed as to whether he was asked to contest the election, he refused to answer.

“I talk to the (Labour) administration and people within the party on a regular basis,” he said.

When asked if a possible candidature might mean trouble for the PL, Muscat stated: “I don’t want to be a problem for the Labour Party.”

He continued by saying that while the inquiry is definitely on his mind, "it is part of his considerations."

“I’ve been considering these things during the past 24 hours because of the panic that I wasn’t expecting,” he added.

Muscat resigned as Prime Minister in January 2020 following a political crisis triggered by the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and subsequent arrests. He was an MEP between 2004 and 2008 before he resigned the post to take on the Labour Party leadership.