Joseph Muscat

Joseph Muscat (born 22 January 1974) is a Maltese politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Malta from 2013 to 2020 and leader of the Labour Party from 2008 to 2020.

Muscat was first elected Prime Minister in March 2013 with 54.83% and re-elected in June 2017 with 55.04%. Previously he was a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 to 2008. He was the leader of the opposition from October 2008 to March 2013. Muscat identifies as a progressive and liberal politician, with pro-business leanings, and has been associated with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies.

Muscat succeeded Alfred Sant as party leader in June 2008. He rebranded the Labour Party, which embraced an increasingly socially liberal and centrist position. His premiership was marked for pulling together a national consensus for economic growth, based on a restructured Maltese economy. His administration led to large-scale changes to welfare and civil liberties, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage in July 2017 and the legalisation of medical cannabis in March 2018.

Muscat presided over the rise of the Labour Party and its dominance in Maltese politics, and the relative decline of the Nationalist Party. He has been criticised by figures on both the left and right, and has been accused of political opportunism, broken promises on meritocracy and the environment, as well as corruption allegations.

On 1 December 2019, under pressure from the 2019 street protests calling for his resignation in relation to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Muscat announced his resignation, and stepped down on 13 January 2020.

In May, 2024, Joseph Muscat together with Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, and others were criminally charged with, among other things, bribery, criminal association, and money laundering in relation to Steward Health Care, Vitals Global Healthcare and the related Hospital contract controversy.

Joseph Muscat is the only leader of a Maltese political party to have won all the elections he contested, ten in a row, both as Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister, between 2009 and 2019, defeating three leaders of the Nationalist Party — Lawrence Gonzi, Simon Busuttil and Adrian Delia.