2025: The year of unfinished business

Defining what 2025 represented in one word or a phrase proved harder than expected. Don’t get us wrong; when the MaltaToday newsroom sat together to look back at the past 12 months we were not short of significant events that helped shape the year. But there was no single characteristic that could capture the entirety of the year in just a word.

It was a year of change in several aspects. But not just. Key events were sandwiched between controversies that were intense and relatively short-lived. Indeed, many issues that cropped up in 2025 remain incomplete and very likely to resurface in the new year unless they remain in suspended animation.

Undoubtedly, Donald Trump’s second term as US president created a whirlwind of chaotic global change and anxiety. The imposition of tariffs, their withdrawal and re-imposition was a game of high stakes as was Trump’s ambivalence on European security and defence. The unpredictability of Trump’s character, climaxing into an international policy document that urges American intervention in European politics to support parties on the extreme and hard right, forced the EU to take a long, hard, inward look. Amid calls for greater defence and security autonomy, the EU remains in two minds how to deal with the US as it contends with internal opposition from the likes of Hungary and Slovakia.

Israel’s relentless and ruthless actions in Gaza, where hunger was weaponised caused international indignation and protests until a shaky ceasefire deal on Trump’s watch was agreed. With the first phase of the deal completed, the subsequent, more complex phases on how and who will run Gaza remain a work in progress as Palestinians in the enclave still reel from the destruction that surrounds them.

Malta’s love for Trump

These international events left their mark in Malta—from formal recognition of the Palestinian state to uncomfortable engagement in the EU over increased defence spending and recommending Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, the international became national. A Labour Party enamoured with neutrality and imbued with anti-Americanism found itself in the uncomfortable position of having its deputy leader, Ian Borg, personally nominating Trump for the peace prize. On the global stage, Malta remains guarded, giving a vibe that it does not want to end up in Trump’s black book.

In the midst of this global hurricane, the Catholic Church also got a new leader. The cardinals gathered in conclave at the Vatican elected Chicago-born Augustinian friar, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as pope. Taking on the name Pope Leo XIV, Prevost is the first American to become pontiff. Considered a centrist, his election provided ‘quiet continuation’ with his predecessor’s progressive agenda without flaying the nerves of conservatives. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen what impact Pope Leo XIV’s papacy will have on the Catholic Church.

The Alex effect

On the domestic front, change was also the operative word for the Nationalist Party. After Bernard Grech’s surprise decision to step down—a MaltaToday survey showing the PN reaching its lowest ebb less than a year after achieving relative success at the European

Parliament election seems to have been the tipping point—party members elected the young Gozitan Alex Borg to lead the party.

The PN’s leadership election was ostensibly the biggest political event of 2025. And although initially there was a sense of déjà vu, given the PN’s propensity to change leaders every so often in the past 12 years, Borg’s election created a positive vibe.

His youthfulness and affability provided a spark of enthusiasm that had long been missing in the party. But given that Borg only clocked his first 100 days in office on 15 December, the proof of the pudding will come in the new year as the party prepares itself for the general election.

Environmental roulette

But these significant changes were accompanied by other events that created intense debate that lasted for a few weeks only to be taken over by new developments.

At the forefront of these events were planning and environmental concerns, namely the Manoel Island saga and the proposed planning reform. In both instances, public pressure and civil society activism forced change or pushed the government to hit the brakes.

A petition started by Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar to have Manoel Island returned to the public as a national park gathered thousands of signatures. There was initial reluctance at official level with Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition leader Bernard Grech both citing the existence of contractual obligations with the private company MIDI plc as a stumbling block. MIDI has an operative lease to develop luxury apartments on Manoel Island.

But as key individual MPs from both sides of the House joined the growing public call, government capitulated and Abela turned his guns on the developers. Government is now committed to taking back Manoel Island and is engaged in discussions with the developers. It was a victory for Gżira residents first and foremost but one that has yet to be legally concluded in the new year.

Barely had the sweet taste of Manoel Island victory been savoured when the controversial planning reform was unmasked. Outlined in two bills that were tabled in parliament on a Friday afternoon just days before parliament’s summer recess, the reform went much further than stopping construction works from starting pending the appeals process.

The proposals were immediately shot down by environmentalists and community campaigners, who argued that they strip away protections and allow developers free reign. Public pressure eventually forced the government to open a public consultation process and talks between an inter-ministerial committee and campaigners are ongoing. Nonetheless, Abela has refused to withdraw the bills despite promising no developments unless a broad consensus is reached. The reforms remain on parliament’s agenda going into the new year, unclear what direction the government will eventually take.

Magisterial inquiries

Another short-lived intense debate occurred at the start of 2025 when the government pushed through with lightening speeds reforms to change the way magisterial inquiries are conducted.

The government introduced proposals that were widely welcomed, such as giving victims of crime and accidents greater access to inquiry findings and developments. However, it also made the controversial decision to eliminate the possibility of ordinary individuals, who suspect wrongdoing, to directly petition a magistrate to hold an inquiry.

The government received flak for its hardball approach, which was a direct reaction to the numerous inquiries that were requested by former PN MP Jason Azzopardi against ministers and public officials. The reforms introduced stricter conditions that make it practically impossible for ordinary people to request magisterial inquiries.

The inquiry reforms were approved in April, despite the resistance put up by the Opposition and protests organised by civil society. A request for an inquiry now has to be made as part of a police report and it will be up to the police to determine whether to ask for an inquiry after investigating the request. The Opposition pledged to reverse the inquiry reforms if elected to government.

But as the magisterial inquiries controversy fizzled out, government opened a public consultation process on voluntary assisted euthanasia. The largely dignified public debate focussed people’s attention on suffering, death, palliative care and the right to choose when to die if given a terminal diagnosis. The euthanasia debate was, however, left in abeyance with the next phase possibly coming in 2026 with the presentation of a draft law unless the government deems it too controversial a topic to pick a year before the election.

Labour flashpoints

These spurts of national controversy were accompanied by flashpoints within the Labour Party. The past 12 months saw the return and the booting out once again of Neville Gafa, who operates a vitriolic blog that combines his undying loyalty to Joseph Muscat and the PL with homophobic rants, pro-Putin propaganda and unabashed conservatism that stands in sharp contrast with all that Labour stood for in the past 12 years.

Robert Abela had booted Gafa out from the Office of the Prime Minister in 2020, shortly after becoming Labour leader and prime minister. Gafa was then considered a liability. But roll forward to August 2025 and the man was given a paid job as customer care officer in the OPM.

The love affair only lasted until October when Gafa’s solo campaign to remove flowers and candles placed in memory of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia at the foot of the Great Siege Monument in Valletta, turned into an international embarrassment. Gafa removed the wreaths placed by ambassadors from Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, prompting red faces at the foreign ministry and the OPM. Gafa eventually resigned his OPM job.

But Gafa was not the only flashback of the Muscat era, who emerged from the woodwork. Former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri went on Ricky Caruana’s podcast to vent and aggrandise his importance to the PL and the government. In carefully curated comments, Schembri’s rare appearance on a platform where his observations went largely unchallenged, proved embarrassing for Abela. Muscat’s former righthand man made it a point to stress that he is “helping the government”, a statement that cast the spotlight on Abela and whether his choices to open his hands again to these people were judicious.

Road deaths caused us to take a hard look at our collective behaviour on the roads, while the lack of babies prompted us to see fertility from an economic lens.

Gangs and football

On the criminal justice side, the dangerous Maksar Gang was put away for life over involvement in the murders of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Carmel Chircop. The football world gave us joy as Hamrun Spartans became the first-ever Maltese club to progress to thge group stage of the UEFA Conference League and the national men’s team clocked up five points in its World Cup Qualifier Group.

The year that is coming to a close has been eventful even if uninspiring. There are days when the sun shines bright as it peeps from behind the clouds, while rain bathes the land in what can be described as a ‘sunshower’. This crazy weather leaves us uncertain of how to describe these days. That is how we believe 2025 panned out.

It gave us controversy, change, joy, suffering and turmoil; yet one thing is certain, many issues remain in abeyance. And that is why we have baptised 2025 as the Year of Unfinished Business.