George Vella

George Vella

George William Vella (born April 24, 1942 in Żejtun ) is a Maltese politician of the Malta Labor Party (MLP) and has been president of his country since April 4, 2019 .

Life

Vella, who is a doctor by profession , became a member of the House of Representatives for the first time in 1978 during the fourth parliamentary term when he succeeded the resigned MP Emmanuel Attard Bezzina . In 1978 he was a substitute representative in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and rapporteur on marine pollution by maritime polluters at the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE), which is affiliated to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In the following election in 1981 he was elected in constituency 3 , which includes Żejtun also Fgura and Marsaskala and belonged to the House of Representatives during the 5th electoral term, which lasted until 1987 .

In 1987 Vella lost his parliamentary seat and was still the permanent representative of Malta to the Council of Europe between January and May 1987 . In 1992 he was re-elected as a member of the House of Representatives in constituency 3 and is a member of Parliament after his subsequent re-election in 1996 , 1998 , 2003 and 2008 .

In March 1992, Vella was elected vice-chairman of the Malta Labor Party and, as such, was also spokesman for parliamentary and foreign affairs. At the same time he was temporarily vice-chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Malta and the European Union . During the seventh legislative period , between 1995 and 1996, he was also a member of the parliamentary committees for the Standing Committee on House Business and for Foreign Affairs ( Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs ).

During his long membership in parliament, he headed numerous Maltese delegations at international conferences and seminars on foreign and environmental issues such as in Strasbourg , Aachen , London , Brussels , Paris , Moscow , Cairo , Damascus and Tripoli .

After the MLP's victory in the 1996 elections, Vella was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Environment in his cabinet on October 29, 1996 by Prime Minister Alfred Sant and held this position until his defeat in the early parliamentary elections in September 1998.

In May 2003 he was followed by Charles Mangion as Deputy Chairman of the MLP. In 2010 Vella became the foreign policy spokesman for the MLP parliamentary group in the House of Representatives.

After the MLP won the elections in March 2013, Vella was again Foreign Minister on March 13, 2013. He was Foreign Minister until June 9, 2017. His successor is Carmelo Abela .

On April 2, 2019, the parliament elected him as the new President of Malta. He took over the post from his predecessor Marie Louise Coleiro Preca on April 4, 2019.

Web links

• Biography on the House of Representatives homepage
• Biography (rulers.org)
• Maltese Key Ministeries (rulers.org)