Coleiro Preca could run for MEP after President’s term ends in 2019

The President of the Republic has suggested to acquaintances that a political career might yet be in the offing after she steps down from Head of State in 2019.

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, a former Labour minister, confided in acquaintances that a candidature for the European Parliament might beckon after her presidential term come to an end in April 2019.

However, in a right of reply sent to this news portal, the Office of the President said Coleiro Preca "wanted to make it clear that she completely excluded this possibility".

Coleiro Preca, 59, had already stated on TVM’s Reporter that she did not exclude continuing in politics after her term is up.

Questions to Coleiro Preca were not replied by the time MaltaToday went to print last Saturday.

It is widely discussed in political circles that Labour leader Joseph Muscat plans on winning a fourth seat for the Labour party in the 2019 elections. In the last elections, the Nationalist Party won its third seat of a total six by a whisker, ensuring equilibrium at European level.

2019’s European and local council elections will be PN leader Adrian Delia’s first electoral test and would possibly serve as another major victory for Muscat, who has won two landslide victories for his party in 2013 and 2017, and enjoys buoyant trust ratings in successive polls.

A possible candidature by Marie Louise Coleiro Preca would easily galvanise party support. Formerly a social policy minister on the fourth district with Qormi as her hometown, Coleiro Preca is a seasoned politician who started her career serving in the Labour executive structures, before being continuously elected in parliament since 1998.