Malta's newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Carmelo Abela, has firmly rejected calls to cut back the amount of time MPs are given to speak in Parliament, arguing that comparisons with legislatures such as the European Parliament, where speeches are limited to just a few minutes, do not hold up because Malta's House has a fraction of the members.
"I have a slight bias, simply because when I was an MP, I felt that 30 minutes was not enough for me to get my point across, and I sometimes felt I needed more," Abela said in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday. He stated how "just because speaking times are shorter abroad doesn't mean we have to do it as well".
He argued that the real problem was not the length of speaking slots but how that time was used, insisting that MPs are given time "to respond properly, and to use it well", and that responsibility lies with the individual members to use their allocated time the way it ought to be used.
Abela, who served as Labour MP since 1996, was appointed Speaker of the House at the opening of Malta's 15th Legislature on 20 June. He was nominated by Prime Minister Robert Abela and his appointment was endorsed by both sides of the House. He had been re-elected as an MP for the Third Electoral District at the 30 May general election, but resigned his seat to take up the Speaker's role.
The appointment ended the 13-year tenure of Anġlu Farrugia, who had served as Speaker across three consecutive legislatures - a record time.
Abela told this newspaper that his appointment as Speaker had caught him off guard. "It was something I did not expect. When one is elected through a general election and is then called by the Prime Minister, there is always uncertainty about what that call might bring," he said. "I was surprised, in a good way. For a moment the thought of it was difficult to fully accept, but then I accepted it and moved forward with the role. My family were always there to support me."
Before becoming Speaker, Abela's long career took him through the Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs ministries and a stint as Deputy Speaker between 2003 and 2010, before he was appointed Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister in January 2020, with responsibility for social dialogue, public broadcasting and the implementation of the electoral manifesto during the Covid-19 pandemic. He was left out of Cabinet following the March 2022 general election, after which he chaired Parliament's Family Affairs Committee as a backbench MP, before moving into the private and quasi-public sector, first as chief Operations officer at AquaBioTech in Mosta and then, from December 2023 until his appointment as Speaker, as CEO of the Central Business District Foundation.
He said his years as Deputy Speaker had given him "a slight insight" into the demands of the top job, though he acknowledged the administrative side of being Speaker, in spite of three decades of parliamentary experience behind him, would take time to fully master. "There is a lot that is new, but I believe that with time I will learn more and adapt," he said.
That experience is already being tested by one of the Speaker's most sensitive powers: the casting vote he would exercise in the rare event of a tied division in the House. Asked how he could convince the Opposition that he would rise above his past as a Labour MP and minister, Abela insisted that his time as Deputy Speaker, including a period serving as an Opposition Speaker from 2003 till 2010, had prepared him to set bias aside.
He gave a hypothetical example: if the government moved to end a debate and the Opposition voted to continue it, and the vote ended in a tie, he said he would side with continuing the debate "regardless of who is proposing the vote", describing this as a principle of continuity that would guide his casting vote. "I still hold my values, and I always stood by them, but I have learned how to make sure they never take over," he said, adding that stepping back from active political life - including no longer attending party events or voting in internal party structures - was part of adjusting to the role. "I miss not being able to contribute directly to debates and questions in Parliament. Now, the only way I can contribute is by responding when I am asked something, but that is very different."
There was a time in his career that Abela's political career appeared to stall - coinciding with claims linking him to a botched armed robbery at the HSBC Qormi branch in 2010, when he had been a bank employee. Abela has always denied allegations made against him, and in 2024 he won a libel case against former Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi over the claims, a verdict later upheld on appeal.
"I personally never felt that I was denied political opportunities because of this, and I don't think I'm the right person to ask about that," Abela said. "They weren't accusations, they were lies. I was more worried about the state of my family than anything else - it wasn't an easy time for us." He said that although the episode had, at times, weighed heavily on him personally, he had been able to carry on with "peace of mind", knowing his conscience was clear, while remaining far more concerned for the wellbeing of his family than for his own career.
Turning to his agenda as Speaker, Abela confirmed he is consulting MPs on the introduction of a childminding service at Parliament, to look after members' children during sittings. He said the idea was long overdue and should encourage parliamentarians with young families to attend sittings more consistently, rather than feeling pressure to leave early. "Every workplace should offer something similar," he said.
He also said changes to Parliament's Standing Orders were needed and long awaited, though he did not set out a timeline. Asked whether Parliament should introduce a dedicated question time for the Prime Minister, similar to arrangements in other legislatures, Abela said this too would form part of that broader Standing Orders' reform currently being discussed.
He emphasised that everything is open to discussion. He stated that although he holds no power on whether these proposals are agreed on, he pushes them and proposes them to both parties and it is then up to them on whether they come to an agreement.
On complaints that Parliamentary Questions are at times ignored or not answered, Abela said he has no formal power to compel ministers to answer fully, but that he has used sittings to encourage members to respond to questions "as fully and in as much detail as possible", while acknowledging that MPs can ultimately choose how, or whether, to engage with a question.
He said he backed calls, long made by his predecessor Farrugia, for a formal right of reply for ordinary citizens mentioned in the House, saying parliamentary privilege should remain intact for MPs but should not be abused; anyone who feels wrongly targeted, he said, should be entitled to have a response forwarded to the Speaker and included into the parliamentary record.
Abela was equally direct on the gender corrective mechanism introduced to boost the number of women in Parliament, saying the tool had clearly worked, pointing to an improvement in female representation compared with the 2022 general election. "Is it a perfect mechanism? No - but that comes with any law; each one has its flaws," he said, adding that expanding the overall number of parliamentary seats could, over time, create more room and opportunities for women to enter politics. Regarding proposals to prevent mechanism-elected MPs from being returned through this system in consecutive elections, Abela said he did not believe democracy should be restricted in that way, arguing the priority should remain growing the number of women in the House.
Asked about the security barriers erected outside Parliament House in Valletta, Abela was blunt: "They are an eyesore, yes." But he said they remained necessary to protect the institution, warning that removing them would likely lead to litter and loitering around the building's frontage, creating a poor impression, particularly for visiting foreign dignitaries. He said discussions were under way with architects and other professionals to design a barrier that would be "respectful towards Parliament" rather than unsightly.
The interview also touched on the long-running debate over whether Malta's Parliament should move from a part-time to a full-time model. Abela said he did not believe a fully full-time arrangement would work well, arguing that MPs' outside careers help keep them "relatable and grounded", particularly where their profession overlaps with their parliamentary role. He suggested a hybrid model might work for some members, even if he personally was not convinced by it, but said that if Parliament remained part-time, both resources and MPs' pay needed to improve. "At the end of the day, the pay is something honorary, so it isn't a large amount," he said, arguing that better remuneration would encourage more people to consider a career in politics.
He also confirmed that engagement with schools is being explored as part of the House's outreach efforts, alongside existing bodies such as the Youth Advisory Council, with the aim of teaching students more about how Parliament and Maltese politics function, in the hope of encouraging a more positive view of politics among younger generations. He stressed that this initiative remains in its early stages, as Parliament works out how best to implement it.
Asked how he hoped his tenure as Speaker would eventually be remembered, Abela was measured. "I was chosen to do this job. I would like people to remember me as someone who always did his work well, with respect for democracy - and that is how I intend to keep working."