I was not exactly overjoyed by the news that Family Affairs and Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca is being tipped to become President of Malta.

To me, at least, it smacks of plucking a very good teacher out of a classroom for promotion to an office job as head of school. They can no longer do what they are best at – teaching.

For several years, I have been following Coleiro Preca in her star-studded political career within the Labour Party. Her speeches on social services from the Opposition benches were always the result of well-studied facts and figures. Now, just one year after she was given the chance to really do something about them, the Prime Minister is reported to be intent on making her Head of State, a highly-placed but largely ineffective position, unless the Constitution is amended during her term.

Is it a case of cutting off a nose to spite a face? Hardly, I would like to think. More a case of a decision that could have been much better.

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