Mario de Marco will not contest general election: ‘Biggest honour of my life was serving the people’

Former Nationalist Party deputy leader Mario de Marco will not be contesting the upcoming general election, MaltaToday can confirm.

The decision brings to a close a parliamentary career spanning more than two decades.

Speaking during a party event in Valletta on Monday evening, de Marco said he felt it was his “duty to make way for a new generation of politicians, more energetic and motivated, because that is what this great district and country deserve”.

“My duty is to ensure we have better and better candidates,” he said.

De Marco’s departure forms part of a broader reshuffle within the Nationalist Party as several veteran MPs make way for a new generation of candidates ahead of the next electoral contest.

The lawyer and academic, son of former President Guido de Marco, was first elected to parliament in 2003 and went on to occupy several key roles within the PN.

Reflecting on his political beginnings, de Marco said he was part of “a generation of politicians who yearned for a European Malta”. He described being elected to parliament in 2003, the first of five elections he contested, as the beginning of the “biggest honour” of his life: representing the people.

“We are here to serve all the people irrelevant of who they are or where they come from,” he said.

Following the 2008 general election, de Marco was appointed parliamentary secretary for tourism and later served as minister for tourism, the environment and culture under former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. During his speech, he thanked Gonzi for the trust he placed in him while serving in government.

After the PN’s defeat in the 2013 election, de Marco was elected deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, serving alongside then-leader Simon Busuttil during a turbulent period for the party. He described serving as deputy leader for an entire legislature as an honour despite the “hard circumstances” the party faced at the time.

Although he later stepped away from the deputy leadership role, he remained an active parliamentary figure.

Addressing the expectations people have of politicians, de Marco said integrity remained the most important virtue in public life.

“You can have strategy, you can have the gift of the gab, but if you do not have integrity, you should be nowhere near politics,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of respect among politicians. “If we do not respect each other, how can we respect people?” he said, adding that politicians should “attack the argument and not the person”.

De Marco denounced hate and racism directed towards Labour candidate Omar Rababah during the speech, saying that “what is wrong should be called wrong”.

“We must raise the standards, as young people expect from us,” he said.

Despite stepping away from electoral politics, de Marco insisted his political journey was not over.

“This is not the end for me. I will continue to help the party,” he said. “The politics of serving people should never stop.”