Former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia has been appointed as Malta's ambassador to Spain.

Mallia presented his Letters of Credence as Ambassador of Malta to King Felipe VI, as well as to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a ceremony in Madrid.

He replaces Daniel Azzopardi, who had been in the role since 2020 and is now the ambassador to Italy.

Mallia spent three years as Malta's High Commissioner to the UK after resigning from parliament to join the diplomatic corps.

While his last role in government was as Minister for Competitiveness and Digital, Maritime and Services Economy between 2016, and 2017, he is most known for a 2014 incident that forced him to resign from his role as Home Affairs Minister just a year after being appointed by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. 

The incident centered on Mallia's driver, Paul Sheehan, who was also a police officer. Sheehan fired multiple shots at a car driven by a motorist who had accidentally grazed Mallia’s parked ministerial vehicle.

A government-appointed inquiry by three retired judges had established that there was an attempt to cover up the incident, which also led to the removal of Ray Zammit who at the time was acting police commissioner.

The inquiry found that while Mallia was not directly involved in any cover-up, he failed in his duties when an official government statement falsely stated that warning shots had been fired into the air.