Watch: The 10 stories that defined 2025

From the Maksar trial to a Paceville building collapse that narrowly avoided becoming a national tragedy, 2025 brought about social, criminal and political developments. 

Maksar gang jailed for life after landmark verdict

Ta’ Maksar brothers and their associates were sentenced to life imprisonment in June, bringing a dramatic end to a six-week trial that laid bare the mechanics of Malta’s criminal underworld.

Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were found guilty of supplying the car bomb that killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, while Vella, Adrian Agius and George Degiorgio were convicted for the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, who was shot four times as he entered a garage near his home in 2015.

This verdict closed another chapter in Caruana Galizia’s assassination and finally shattered the myth of invincibility surrounding Malta’s high-level bomb suppliers.

Youngest-ever leader Alex Borg secures PN victory by 44 votes

Gozitan MP Alex Borg was elected leader of the Nationalist Party in September following the tightest race in the party’s history, defeating former leader Adrian Delia by a mere 44 votes.

The 30-year-old lawyer, who became the youngest person to lead the party, was announced the winner after a marathon nine-hour count that ended at 4am amid scenes of both celebration and procedural confusion at PN’s Pietà headquarters.

Borg’s ascent to power marks the moment PN gambled on a “generational change” to break a decade of electoral decline. His victory moved from the veteran leadership of the past to a newcomer who campaigned on a “winning mentality”.

While his first 100 days were marked by newfound enthusiasm within the party, the long-awaited publication of the party’s accounts and record-breaking fundraisers, his leadership remains a high-stakes test of whether a fresh face can unite the opposition and present a credible threat to the Labour government’s dominance.

Malta’s history rewritten as Latnija Cave pushes human presence back 1,000 years

In April, archaeologists discovered that humans inhabited Malta at least 8,500 years ago, a full millennium earlier than previously recorded, following a groundbreaking excavation at Latnija Cave in Mellieħa.

The findings, published in renowned journal Nature, prove that the islands’ first inhabitants were not Neolithic farmers as long believed, but Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who crossed 100km of open sea from Sicily.

Led by professors Eleanor Scerri and Nicholas Vella, the team unearthed stone tools and the remains of cooked local fauna dating back to 6,500BC.

The discovery fundamentally changes the history of Maltese origins and will change school curricula and museums for generations to come. This find was hailed as significant as Sir Temi Zammit’s 20th-century identification of the megalithic temples, as it placed Malta at the centre of early Mediterranean seafaring history.

Former councillor charged with €2.3 million MCAST payroll heist

Former PN councillor Francine Farrugia, 31, was charged in August with defrauding MCAST of €2.3 million after allegedly siphoning public funds into her personal accounts over a two-year period.

Farrugia, who served as a manager in the college’s payroll department, is accused of using the identities of legitimate employees to issue double payments, directing the surplus into her own accounts. She denies all charges.

Testimony revealed that Farrugia allegedly spent the stolen millions on a lavish lifestyle, including a €113,000 shopping spree at Harrods, luxury designer bags, and multiple property promises-of-sale.

The PN moved quickly to distance itself from her and the case ignited a debate over the lack of oversight in public institutions, with auditors having reportedly flagged payroll weaknesses years before the alarm was finally raised by external banks.

Government planning bills spark backlash

The government plans to retain the controversial planning bills tabled in summer albeit with significant amendments after a long, heated public consultation period and a national protest.

The two pieces of legislation, Bills 143 and 144, were tabled quietly before the summer recess and have been branded by NGOs and activists as a “developers’ wish list” designed to dismantle judicial oversight and grant the Planning Authority too many discretionary powers.

The saga became one of the defining conflicts of 2025 because it ignited fears that the proposed laws would allow the PA to deviate from local plans based on vague contextual considerations and would strip the law courts of their power to revoke irregularly issued permits, instead forcing them to send cases back to a government-appointed tribunal.

The government has vowed to go ahead with the reform, but not before it listens to all stakeholders’ concerns and amend the bills as necessary. Those amendments are yet to be published.

Paceville apartment block collapse 

In June, the collapse of a multi-storey building in Paceville shocked the nation while throwing fears about Malta’s construction boom once again into the spotlight.

Late at night, a large part of the Tania Flats apartment block on Triq Paceville collapsed into a heap, sending emergency services racing to the scene.  

But as shocking as the incident was, it could have been far worse; the collapse happened just hours after 32 student residents were evacuated over concerns about the building’s safety – fears exemplified by photos showing walls riddled with cracks.  

It later emerged that architects had argued about whether the building was structurally sound years earlier, after an architect warned that a new penthouse had damaged the party walls.

The incident prompted furious questions to authorities, including from businesses in the area who were forced to remain shut until they privately engaged architects to certify their businesses as safe – a measure they argued was the responsibility of authorities.

Change of plan for Manoel Island 

June saw environmental activists claim a major victory, when, following pressure at a time when the contract for the development of Manoel Island was being renegotiated, the government dramatically changed tack and came out against the project.

Within a month, Prime Minister Robert Abela went from pushing back against a petition calling for the island to be turned into a national park to saying it was his “dream” to give the island back to the public and demanding the developers, MIDI, pay penalties for contractual breaches.  

Days earlier, MIDI had said in a statement to the stock market that the government had “underscored its desire to convert Manoel Island into a national park”, signalling a dramatic change in fortunes for the area.  

The company since said the government has “threatened” to terminate its concession to develop the island by March, over contractual “defaults” – a claim it rejects.  

Talks are continuing between MIDI and the government to reach an out-of-court settlement allowing the company to exit the contract.

Chaos as drugs stolen from AFM barracks

A weekend in February saw the audacious theft of 132kg of cannabis resin from an army barracks, leading Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to suspend the commander of the armed forces and offer his own resignation to the prime minister.  

Despite calls from the Opposition and rule of law NGO Repubblika for Camilleri’s resignation offer to be honoured, the minister stayed on after the cabinet expressed its full confidence in him.

Following the arrests of 12 people in connection with the embarrassing heist, subsequent court proceedings and an administrative inquiry painted a picture of woeful incompetence.

The solider responsible for monitoring the barracks’ CCTV cameras was watching a film on a tablet with earphones on, while his colleague was asleep in breach of orders, leaving the thieves undisturbed for hours as they made repeated trips to and from the barracks.

The case continues.

Serving you-know-what

Miriana Conte stirred controversy with her Eurovision entry Serving – a song that started out life provocatively titled Kant but that saw a change of name after pushback from international broadcasters.  

While the word kant means “singing” in Maltese, listeners were quick to spot its similarity to a vulgar slang term for part of the female anatomy. It was also interpreted as a pun on “serving c*nt”, an expression popularised by LGBT culture to describe a confident person.

Although Conte was keen to stress the word “wasn’t [used] to get publicity”, international broadcasters took a dim view, with the European Broadcasting Union ruling the word kant could not feature in the song.

That did not stop the song reaching the finals, however, or the Eurovision audience in Switzerland filling in the banned blanks.  

Gravelgate

Ta’ Qali has continued to make headlines since concerns about gravel laid at the park’s picnic area were first raised in August, with the issue stubbornly refusing to go away. 

Complaints that the popular spot appeared lifeless after the gravel was laid at the site were rebuffed by the head of the park, Jason Micallef, who insisted the gravel would not prevent grass from growing back in the winter.  

Branding a subsequent petition to remove the gravel “fake news”, days later he lashed out at podcaster Trudy Kerr, who had commented on the issue, threatening her with legal action.  

Micallef’s attacks did not stop with Kerr, however; December saw the Labour firebrand face accusations of harassment after publicly attacking a Newsbook journalist investigating the site.  

Meanwhile, eyebrows were raised over the eye-watering €311,000 paid for the gravel, a purchase made through a direct order. Despite Micallef’s assurances – and covert night-time irrigation – the picnic area remains grassless.