Retired Labour Party veteran Michael Farrugia believes that this year's general election result - which saw the Labour Party's lead over the Nationalist Party slashed by nearly half - was impacted by several PL voters staying home, rather than the PN making inroads.
Farrugia observed that the PN did not make too many gains and went as far as to say that "there was no improvement".
"If you look at the PL, it seems likely that some voters stayed at home. Is it a protest? Is it because they were not happy? There are a number of reasons why people could have stayed home," Farrugia said in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday.
The PL won the 30 May general election with a 21,000-vote margin, down from 39,000 four years ago. The PN increased its vote tally by 13,000 while Labour lost some 4,000 votes. The PN gained votes on all districts, resulting in more parliamentary seats on its side of the House.
When asked whether this reduced voter gap concerns him, Farrugia stated that "if you compare it with all the elections since the Second World War, up to today, it is the fourth biggest gap between [the] two parties in an election".
The 2026 general election in fact recorded the fourth-largest voter gap since Malta's independence, only behind the staggering results registered in 2022, 2017, and 2013. The next largest voter gap in independent Maltese history came in the 1992 election, at 13,021 votes.
Farrugia noted that the PN failed to come up with a vision for the country that differentiated it from the PL, adding that simply promising to be different "doesn't work".
"If you have two parties basically stating the same thing, would you change your winning team?" Farrugia asked.
He also shared that "the Labour Party still looks united compared to the Nationalist Party, where the perception is 'can I trust them in government?'".
Farrugia said that the PN tried to put forward a positive campaign, after identifying that going out with a "completely negative campaign" didn't work out for it, "but it made a number of mistakes in the process".
He stated that he would prefer seeing a strong Opposition to rival the Labour Party, noting that this is healthier for any democracy.
"For democracy, you need a very strong Opposition. You need an Opposition with a vision, you know what it stands for, that it can give a direction and not just state that it wants to be a government in waiting but that you really are a government in waiting," he said.
'I think, in the circumstances, the tender made sense' - Farrugia on hospitals' deal
Farrugia - a former Minister for Health - defended the Labour government's decision to proceed with the Vitals-Steward hospitals' deal in 2015. He was a member of Muscat's Cabinet at the time.
He argued that with Malta at the time emerging from an excessive deficit and with debt-to-GDP levels being high, "investing in infrastructure would have increased the deficit and would have increased the debt level compared with GDP". He said the decision to go for this tender made sense beyond just the financial aspect.
"The way it was put forward, I think it was the right decision," he said.
The hospitals' deal was rescinded by the Courts of Law in 2023, with the hospitals returning to government administration. A magisterial inquiry has led to the arraignment of, among others, former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
When asked why the Labour government dragged on the three hospitals' contract for years, thus continuing to pump millions of euros to the private sector, Farrugia responded that one cannot run a hospital with zero financing.
"Whether the government runs it or the private sector runs it, it costs money," he said.
He cited the 2025 international arbitration report and sustained that what Vitals Global Healthcare and Steward Healthcare were paid was "justified". He mentioned how Malta used this channel to acquire ventilators during the Covid-19 pandemic and added that this taxpayer money was used for services across several areas, such as Gozitan healthcare, surgeries, consumables, utilities, and more.
When confronted with the fact that his explanation did not align with the Court of Appeal's conclusion of "collusion", Farrugia said he would comment further once the court case concludes, "because the evaluation during the investigations that took place might not have taken into consideration all aspects to the case".
As an example, he mentioned an NAO report which had concluded that energy purchased through the interconnector was cheaper than buying electricity generated locally by the power station. In this report, the NAO only factored in the price at which Malta purchased electricity from the interconnector when it did, and not when it didn't. He said that Malta decided whether to purchase energy from the interconnector or through the local power station depending on the electric grid's available supply in Sicily, as this would greatly impact prices. Hence, he said that when supply was low and demand was high, Malta would choose to buy electricity from the power station instead of paying significantly higher prices. Resultantly, Farrugia said that in this report, the NAO's conclusion was simultaneously true and false.
Tying this back to the hospitals' deal, he said that it is important to see the whole picture while compiling a report, rather than just a part of it.
Farrugia refused to comment on whether anyone within Cabinet ever contested then Health Minister Konrad Mizzi on the hospitals' deal, citing Cabinet confidentiality.
'You have to do whatever it takes, no stone unturned,' Farrugia says he told police commissioner after Caruana Galizia murder
Farrugia was Malta's Home Affairs Minister when journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in October 2017.
Farrugia said he was shocked and remembers exactly where he was, what he was doing, and the phone call he received from the police commissioner to alert him on what had just taken place.
He recalled how the police chief called him before officers arrived on site in Bidnija and informed him that they were suspecting that Caruana Galizia had just been a victim to a car bomb.
In reaction to this information, he replied: "Oh my God. You have to do whatever it takes. No stone unturned. No matter how much it costs, we have to do all the investigations necessary, we have to solve this."
He recalled how he had insisted for Maltese police to be assisted by international investigators to ensure that they received all the necessary help, given the delicate case and especially considering that previous car bombs in Malta had remained unsolved.
Farrugia added that he also wanted to invite foreign assistance so that, if local investigations were not successful, "no-one could point fingers at the police that they were trying to hide something or [protect] somebody".
Members of the Dutch forensic unit arrived in Malta the following morning, after Farrugia's intervention with his Dutch counterpart, and were later followed by people from the FBI and Europol, he said.
Farrugia expressed his gratitude to telecommunications service providers for helping authorities "narrow the investigation on who the possible (perpetrators) were".
"It was the first car bomb in a series of car bombs that was solved and the persons who were suspected were brought to justice or their court case is still ongoing," Farrugia said.
Speaking about his time as Home Affairs Minister, Farrugia said that crime rates continued to drop since 2017 and that all murders since his time in office began, up until this day, have been solved. He attributed this to police being given the necessary equipment and having their internal procedures ameliorated.
'There was no option' - Farrugia on Alfred Sant's 1998 snap election
Looking back at some major points throughout his political career, Farrugia told this newsroom that Labour Prime Minister Alfred Sant had no choice but to call a snap election in 1998.
This decision resulted in the Nationalist Party returning to power after just two years and remaining in power for another 15 consecutive years. As a result, several political critics believe that Sant was mistaken to announce this snap election.
However, Farrugia backed the former leader, noting that with Dom Mintoff already voting against government on a bill at Committee Stage and with Sant's government holding an advantage of a single MP, Sant was left with no choice.
"If you lose the majority in a money bill, you have lost the confidence of the Parliament and there is no option," he said.
Comparing the three PL leaders he worked with
Farrugia described Sant as intelligent, bureaucrat-like, and as the man who changed the Labour Party overnight "while suffering the consequences of the decisions he had taken to bring this change". Farrugia said that Sant's caring side didn't quite come out to the public.
In comparison, Farrugia views Sant's successor, Joseph Muscat, as "politically very much in line as Alfred Sant", though as "more of a politician" than a bureaucrat. He described Muscat as a great orator, came across as bubblier and more sociable than his predecessor, and that he believes Muscat earned people's respect by taking risks and walking on edge.
"He doesn't work in a comfort zone. He is ready to take risks. I would say sometimes calculated risks, but he still walks on edge when he takes decisions. If he didn't do so, I think the changes that happened after 2013 wouldn't have happened," Farrugia said on Muscat.
Farrugia also thanked Muscat for pushing him out of his comfort zone and for taking up new portfolios away from the health sector. He said that if he could give advice to politicians who are reluctant to change their portfolios, he'd tell them that he learned a lot by doing so, and that "working away from your comfort zone gives you a wider political approach".
Farrugia remarked that Prime Minister Robert Abela successfully identified the people's mood when he contested for PL leadership and pledged for party continuation while enacting needed changes.
He also complimented the way Abela led Malta through several major challenges "unscathed" while still conforming to PL politics and achieving results, for example, remaining "against any austerity whatsoever". He continued that the changes Abela introduced following the 2024 MEP elections were done quickly and, in his view, led to the result of the last election.
Farrugia's decision to retire from politics after 34 years in Parliament
This year marked the first time that Farrugia did not contest a general election in nearly four decades.
Farrugia said that he chose to step away from politics, after serving as an MP for eight full successive legislatures, because he believes that politicians should be the ones to step away from public service on their own accord.
He said he believes that a politician, at one moment in time, needs to decide to stop.
Having served as an MP since 1992, Farrugia said his decision to retire from politics was not influenced by being relegated to the backbenches, rather than appointed to Cabinet in Robert Abela's government during the last legislature. He said that he was kept busy this past legislature, as a backbencher, having been chairman to the Consideration of Bills Committee, serving as Acting Speaker, and acting as a member of the Council of Europe.
Across his long political career, Farrugia served the nation as an MP, as Health Minister, as Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Administrative Simplification, as Minister for Family and Social Solidarity, as Minister for Home Affairs and National Security, as the Minister for Energy and Water Management, and as Minister for Senior Citizens and Active Ageing.
He said that his time in charge of Home Affairs and as Family and Social Solidarity Minister were, personally, the most satisfying portfolios he worked on. He said that these roles offered different satisfactions; in one role he did a lot for the people and in the other he did things in the people's interests.
Farrugia said that social policy has been the Labour Party's success story over the years, starting out with the introduction of social benefits by past PL administration - 2026 marks 70 years of social policy in the Maltese islands.
He recounted that as Family and Social Solidarity Minister, he sought to improve pensions and the pensions system while giving people the possibility to not be dependent on benefits and stay at the risk of poverty. He said that the percentage of women eligible for work and in the workforce before these changes stood at 40%, while today this figure is at around 70%. "The reason is that with tapering of benefits, with the in-work benefit, the children's allowance, if you were on a low income, it makes work pay," he said.
Farrugia noted with delight that reforms he propelled in the past have contributed for the "80% reduction in poverty" observed among Maltese people since 2014.
He stated that as minister for family, health, and others, he always insisted with his team that "whoever needed help or support, irrespective whether they are from the most southern point of Malta up to the northern tip of Gozo, you have to assist, and irrespective of whether white, blue, red, green, or yellow, you are there to help the people and that is one of the things I used to tell my team - if they come, it's because they are really in need".