Cyrus Engerer in pole position to take Miriam Dalli’s place in Brussels

He defected to the Labour Party in 2011 and went on to become Joseph Muscat’s special envoy in Brussels but now Cyrus Engerer is one step away from becoming an MEP

Cyrus Engerer
Cyrus Engerer

Cyrus Engerer is the Labour Party’s best-placed candidate to take Miriam Dalli’s seat in the European Parliament when she formally steps down.

Engerer had inherited 2,200 votes from Dalli when she got elected on the first count in last year’s European election and was the last Labour candidate to be eliminated.

These factors, coupled with his surname, which puts him directly below Dalli on the ballot sheet, place Engerer as the favourite to clinch her seat in a casual election.

Dalli is heading towards co-option to the Maltese parliament after none of the Labour candidates on the 2nd District submitted their nomination to contest the casual election made necessary by Joseph Muscat’s resignation.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has lured Dalli back to Malta and is expected to include her in his Cabinet.

Dalli’s co-option to the Maltese parliament will open a casual election to fill her seat in Brussels.

Engerer polled 5,394 first-count votes in the 2019 MEP election, the fifth highest after Dalli, Alfred Sant, Alex Agius Saliba and Josianne Cutajar, who all ended up getting elected.

A former Nationalist deputy mayor in Sliema, Engerer eloped to the PL during the divorce referendum of 2011. After the 2013 election, he was appointed as the first chairperson of the Maltese Consultative Council on LGBTIQ rights.

He was a Labour candidate for the European election in 2014 but withdrew when a court of appeal sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for two years, after he was found guilty of distributing pornography.

Engerer was subsequently appointed Muscat’s special envoy in Brussels, a post he stepped down from in May 2018 when he announced his candidacy for the 2019 MEP election.