Marked by scandals, violent crimes and cultural headlines, 2024 was a year of milestones and challenges for Malta. 

From an ex prime minister charged with corruption to a historic presidency, it was a year of political intrigue. 

And with a blockbuster movie, concert and swim, there was much to report beyond politics. 

Neville Borg and Matthew Bonanno look back on ten stories that defined Malta’s year.

1. Joseph Muscat charged with corruption

Years of rumours, investigations and claims into a fraudulent hospitals’ concession came to a head in late May, with the unprecedented sight of former prime minister Joseph Muscat marching to court to face criminal charges linked to the Vitals concession.

Muscat was not alone. The charge sheet read like a who’s who of former and sitting cabinet members, with Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Chris Fearne and Edward Scicluna all in the dock, alongside a collection of civil servants, lawyers, auditors and businesses.

The event itself took on the air of a Greek drama.

Muscat, who, until that point, had been teasing a potential return as an MEP candidate the following month, dubbed magistrate Gabriella Vella’s inquiry as a personal “vendetta”, accusing her of waging war against him and the Labour Party and vowing to fight the accusations blow-by-blow.

Robert Abela went one better, describing the situation as a “holy war” run by an unnamed “establishment”, questioning the timing of the inquiry’s conclusion in the midst of an election campaign.

Hundreds of Muscat loyalists showed up outside court on the day to show their support, telling reporters that he was being unjustly targeted.

The initial series of marathon, high-drama arraignments later gave way to a steady trickle of court hearings throughout the autumn and winter. Although less glamorous, they too have been replete with their fair share of drama, from legal blunders to squabbles over the inquiry experts.

But the case is likely to dominate headlines again in the new year as new testimony is heard, no doubt shedding new light on the scandal.

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2. The MEP election results that shook Labour’s stronghold

June’s MEP elections were expected to follow a well-worn script. Come election day, grumbling over the scandal of the day would give way to a massive Labour victory, with a battered Nationalist opposition left licking its wounds. But things took an unexpected turn.

By Sunday afternoon, a few hours into the count, whispered rumours began to swirl that the result would be tighter than expected.

Shortly afterwards, beaming PN officials took to the media to declare that the parties were within touching distance, while glum Labour figures muttered hackneyed phrases about lessons needing to be learnt.

Once the dust settled, it became clear that Labour had won the most pyrrhic of victories, seeing a seemingly unassailable 42,000 lead whittled down to 8,400 votes, winning a lower share of the vote than at any point since 1966. 

But the PN’s initial jubilation was tempered by the realisation that it had barely made any inroads with new voters, winning the same share of the vote as it had when suffering heavy defeat in the 2022 general election (and fewer than in both 2013 and 2017’s catastrophic losses).

Smaller parties and independent candidates had a little more reason to celebrate, with the tally of third party voters higher than in any other MEP elections in Malta’s history, albeit still far from enough to actually nab one of Malta’s six seats at the European Parliament.

The biggest winner on the night was undoubtedly Roberta Metsola, elected with a record 87,000 votes on her way to securing a second term as president of the European Parliament.

But, perhaps more than the six MEPs that were eventually elected, this election may well come to be remembered as the vote that shifted Malta’s political sands back to a semblance of normality.

Although the outcome of the next election may not quite be teetering on a knife’s edge, it will be the first vote in more than a decade in which both parties stand a fighting chance. 

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3. The Sofia public inquiry findings

Isabelle Bonnici had waited for this moment for over a year, ever since her son, Jean Paul Sofia was killed in a Corradino building collapse in late 2022.

Almost overnight, Bonnici became Malta’s leading voice for reforms to the country’s construction industry, tirelessly waging a campaign for a public inquiry into the collapse that led to her son’s death, in the face of the government’s reluctance.

Her persistence forced the government to relent and the 484-page inquiry painted a damning picture of state failure when it was finally published in late February.

The inquiry board spoke of a “comedy of errors” that led to the disaster, with the doomed construction site slipping through the cracks of the government’s countless entities and parastatal bodies.

Almost immediately, heads began to roll.

Top officials at some of the entities named in the inquiry, including the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) and Malta Enterprise, were shown the door, although ministers Silvio Schembri, Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Miriam Dalli all brushed off the opposition’s calls for their resignation.

The government’s bureaucratic wheels gradually began to turn, with a new government committee and a single-minded construction directorate set up to implement the inquiry’s many recommendations.

The rest of the year was marked by a slow trickle of reforms spurred by the inquiry, from state entities receiving a welcome injection of new blood to the introduction of ongoing training requirements for stone masons.

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4. Karl Gouder’s tragic death

The late summer political lull was shattered by the news that Karl Gouder, a much-beloved figure across Malta’s political spectrum, had died suddenly in early September.

The future had looked bright for Gouder. Just two days earlier, he had announced his plan to run for the post of PN general secretary, hoping to take over from Michael Piccinino who would be stepping down to become an election candidate.

Gouder was believed to be a shoo-in for the post, having played a leading role, thanks to his organisational skills, while leading the resurgence of the PN’s media arm and playing a pivotal role in the MEP and local council election campaign earlier in the summer.

News of the 45-year-old former MP’s sudden death in Valletta was met with shock and sorrow in equal measure, with hundreds of mourners packing St Julian’s parish church to pay their respects and Gouder being awarded posthumous Republic Day honours in recognition of his contribution to Maltese politics. 

But the news also sparked a deluge of rumours about Gouder’s final hours, sparking his family to request information from the public in the hope to piece the puzzle together.

Things took a nastier turn months later, with PN and Abela trading barbs over Gouder’s death.

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5. HSBC puts one foot out the door

Rumours of HSBC leaving town had bubbled up from time to time in recent years but a wordy company announcement in mid-September seemed to seal the deal.

The bank would be carrying out a “strategic review” of its operations, it announced, paving the way for a barrage of rumours over who its potential buyers could be.

APS quickly emerged as the frontrunners, reportedly having been in takeover discussions for years.

The news spurred a flurry of soul-searching debate over the Church’s role in Malta’s banking community, with the archbishop himself pitching in to say that the matter was “far from a done deal”. 

Others speculated over whether such a deal was even possible and whether Malta should be trying to attract an international bank to take HSBC’s place.

Meanwhile, several other, as yet unnamed, bidders soon entered the picture, each hoping to take over the bank’s operations.

But little reliable news is likely to emerge until February, when HSBC’s extraordinary general meeting will set the wheels of the bank’s sale into motion.

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 6. A new president in town 

In March, the nation welcomed a new president, with George Vella making way for Myriam Spiteri Debono. 

Malta’s third female president, Spiteri Debono, marked a historic milestone, as she became the first president elected under the 2020 constitutional reforms, which require a two-thirds parliamentary majority for such appointments. 

In her inaugural address, the former parliamentary speaker emphasised the importance of ethical governance and the need to uphold the constitution. 

In November, Spiteri Debono was appointed as the chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. In this role, she leads a network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers, focusing on reducing gender-based inequalities and sharing solutions to build better societies. 

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7. Neil Agius smashes his own record 

After an abandoned attempt to swim from Mallorca to Ibiza last year, former Olympic athlete Neil Agius aimed to bounce back in 2024. And bounce back he did, with a world-record-shattering 140-km swim around Malta, Gozo and Comino in September. 

Agius set his own record in 2021, when he swam from Linosa to Malta, a distance of 125.7km. 

"It was not a swim for me, it was a swim for Malta," Agius said after being in the water for three days and three nights, emerging to the cheers of hundreds of supporters who had gathered at Għar Lapsi to give him a hero’s welcome. 

Agius used the swim to raise awareness about the state of Malta’s marine habitat in collaboration with environmental NGOs, whose clean-up efforts during his swim resulted in 790kg of marine waste being collected. 

It’s fair to say few people have managed to unite and inspire Maltese people from all walks of life as Agius has done. 

But will Agius attempt to go even further in 2025? 

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8. Four murders, a shootout and a body in a suitcase 

The new year was not even a day old before the country saw its first murder of 2024. 

Eric Borg, a 27-year-old taxi driver, was fatally shot in Rabat following an argument on New Year’s Day. The suspect, 40-year-old Noel Azzopardi, surrendered to police and was charged with the murder. 

The violent start to the year continued on January 13, when a Colombian woman was stabbed to death in Sliema. Hours later, her ex-partner walked into Sliema police station and confessed to the crime using a translation app on his mobile phone. 

In August, 48-year-old Nicolette Ghirxi was murdered in her Swatar apartment by her ex-partner, Edward Johnston, a 50-year-old Irish national. The two had been in a relationship that ended earlier in the year, after which Johnston engaged in a campaign of harassment against Ghirxi. 

An hour after the police found Ghirxi’s body, Johnston was located by the sea near the Hilton hotel, in St Julian's. During a confrontation with the police, he pointed what appeared to be a firearm at the officers, prompting them to shoot and kill him. It was later determined that the weapon was a replica. 

Two months later, 54-year-old Mount Carmel resident Jesmond Gatt was found unconscious in a pool of blood, succumbing to his injuries days later. His roommate, Vuk Milic, a Serbian national, told a medical officer he was behind the killing. 

The year was bookended by a macabre discovery in Gżira. After a suitcase spotted floating near Manoel Island was brought ashore and opened, it resulted that it contained a dismembered body.  

The victim, a Colombian national, is believed to have been a drug mule, as he was found to have more than 100 cocaine tablets in his stomach. The autopsy revealed the victim may have died from asphyxiation. 

After a three-day nationwide manhunt, a 43-year-old Colombian man was arrested and charged with a raft of drug and money laundering-related offences and trying to conceal a body.  

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9. Clayton Bartolo gets the boot 

Former tourism minister Clayton Bartolo had a year to forget. In November, a report by the standards commissioner concluded that Bartolo and Gozo minister Clint Camilleri were guilty of breaching the ministerial code of ethics. The report said the two ministers abused their power when Bartolo's now-wife, Amanda Muscat was employed in a job she was not qualified for and did not do. 

Muscat was first promoted from Bartolo’s personal assistant to his consultant with a generously beefed-up salary of almost €62,000 in 2020 and, again, with an even higher salary of €68,000, with Camilleri in 2021. 

Despite mounting public pressure, Bartolo was initially backed by the prime minister. But a Times of Malta article revealing that Muscat was under investigation for receiving suspected kickbacks totalling €50,000 appears to have forced Abela’s hand. Bartolo subsequently resigned as minister and was removed from Labour’s parliamentary group. 

While Camilleri remains in the cabinet, he could be facing stormy weather going into the new year. In December, former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi filed an urgent request for another magisterial inquiry into an alleged criminal racket involving the Gozo ministry and Transport Malta, featuring Camilleri and his wife. 

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10. Ed Sheeran woos Malta, Gladiator II divides opinion 

Arguably the highlight of Malta’s pop culture calendar was Ed Sheeren’s sold-out concert at Ta Qali. It was the biggest paid concert ever organised in Malta, with an estimated 35,000 cheering fans filling the venue.  

“This is my very first time in Malta and I’m so glad to be here,” Sheeran said at the start of the gig, while wearing a black t-shirt stamped with the word ‘Malta’. By the time he had gone through all his hits, he was wearing a national team football shirt. 

Over in film, anticipation for the release of Gladiator II was sky high, not least because, like its predecessor, large parts of the film were shot in Malta and featured several local actors, extras and production crew. 

However, Ridley Scott's film didn’t set the box office alight in the same way as the original and reception of the film was mixed. Some enjoyed the gladiatorial set pieces featuring rhinos and a Colosseum flooded with shark-infested water, while others felt the film was a pale imitation of the original. 

Still, at least, lead actors Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal seemed to enjoy their time in Malta. 

Main picture: Top, from left, Myriam Spiteri Debono greets the crowd; HSBC floated its exit from Malta; Joseph Muscat enters court; Middle from left, scenes from the election counting hall; Neil Agius emerges from his record-breaking swim; Nicolette Ghirxi was murdered in her home; Bottom from left, Clayton Bartolo and his now-wife Amanda Muscat; Karl Gouder's poster at PN headquarters Dar Ċentrali; Ed Sheeran performing at Ta' Qali; a set from Gladiator II.