Malta's Labour party wins historic fourth term in snap general election

Malta’s Labour Party secured an unprecedented fourth consecutive term on Sunday in a victory for outgoing Prime Minister Robert Abela, who had called an early election amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.

Jubilant Labour supporters dressed in the party’s red colours chanted “four times!” after officials at the Counting House in Naxxar announced that preliminary results pointed to a win for the governing party.

Abela, 48, had brought forward the vote by a year, arguing that the government needed a renewed mandate to help shield the import-dependent island from instability linked to the Middle East crisis.

While Malta’s economy grew by 4.0 percent last year, concerns remain that the conflict could affect tourism, driven by rising aviation fuel costs, and put upward pressure on inflation.

Abela campaigned on Labour’s economic performance since 2013, promising stability during a period of uncertainty.

“All indications suggest that the Malta Labour Party has made history by winning four elections in a row,” he said.

His main challenger was Nationalist Party (PN) candidate Alex Borg, a 30-year-old lawyer and former “Mr World Malta” contestant, who had called on voters to back change.

Borg conceded on Sunday, saying in a social media statement that he had “personally called Robert Abela to congratulate him” on the result.

Abela has led Malta since 2020, when his predecessor resigned amid a political crisis triggered by the 2017 assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had exposed high-level corruption in the country.

According to a 2025 Council of Europe report, Malta still lags behind in its fight against corruption, although the issue did not feature prominently in the election campaign.