Helena Dalli expected to be appointed acting president

Updated 11.35am with Helena Dalli comment

Former European Commissioner Helena Dalli is expected to be appointed Malta’s next acting president.

She confirmed she was willing to blockume the role when contacted by Times of Malta on Wednesday.

“I always did and will continue to do what was needed for the country,” she said.

Dalli is expected to take on a role that has been vacant since the former acting president Francis Zammit Dimech, died on April 21.

Parliamentary Speaker Anġlu Farrugia has temporarily served as acting president in the interim. 

The acting president blockumes all the president’s duties whenever the head of state is abroad or unable to perform her duties due to health reasons.

Dalli is a former Labour minister and MP who served a term as European Commissioner. She was touted as a potential president in 2024 but her candidacy effectively ran into a dead end when the Opposition made it clear that it would block her nomination, because she had served within Joseph Muscat’s cabinet.

Parliament eventually appointed Myriam Spiteri Debono as head of state. 

Malta’s president must be nominated by two-thirds of Malta’s MPs. Acting presidents, on the other hand, can be nominated unilaterally by the government. 

Dalli had made it clear she was disappointed with the way things panned out in 2024, saying on national TV that the PN’s stance was “unfair”.

Unlike the president, the acting president does not need a two-thirds parliamentary majority to be appointed, has no fixed term and takes the oath of office each time the president is abroad or in hospital. Duties include everything from attending official ceremonies to signing laws.

Dalli became an MP in 1996, when Alfred Sant was prime minister. She was immediately appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Rights.

Later, Joseph Muscat appointed her a minister upon his election in 2013, initially responsible for social dialogue, consumer affairs and civil liberties and then for European affairs and equality.

She was the first Maltese woman to be appointed EU Commissioner in 2019. In 2023, she was appointed to the National Order of Merit by then-president George Vella.