Robert Abela and Bernard Grech delivered heartfelt tributes to former MP Karl Gouder on Tuesday, urging fellow MPs to emulate the late politician's unwavering kindness, honesty, and patriotism.

The government and opposition leaders were speaking during a special, 30-minute parliamentary session honouring the 45-year-old who shocked the country when he died suddenly last month.

Gouder, a former PN mayor and MP, was touted as the party's next general secretary. 

Gouder's family was present in parliament's strangers' gallery on Tuesday, and parliament published and distributed his first parliamentary speech, as is tradition.

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said the speech, which dates back to May 2010, shows Gouder was always ready to learn and seek the truth in all that he said.

Abela: 'Karl never changed'

Abela said he first got to know Gouder as a fellow schoolboy. Both went to St Aloysius College but Gouder was a year younger.

Abela said that even as a young man, Gouder had "a sense of joy" and as a member of parliament would debate arguments but never resorted to personal attacks.

"It's hard for me to speak about someone with whom I was in school. Karl never changed, and I confirmed that when we met in parliament years later," he said.

"Karl left us, but he also left many living memories. He has bestowed on us a sense of duty and responsibility, to behave like he did in this house - to seek reconciliation."

Abela said Gouder's funeral evoked a sense of unity that he only felt in one other funeral - that of young athlete Jake Vella, who also died last month after battling a long, gruelling illness.

"There was the feeling of a country that united behind one person," he said.

"Karl was a fellow student, a personal friend, and a man who gave his all for his country."

Grech: 'Karl brought people together'

Gouder's party leader, Bernard Grech, said his death hit him almost as hard as that of both his parents, who also died in his four years as Opposition leader.

He praised Gouder for his work on the PN's 2024 MEP election campaign, saying he was the "backbone" of that effort. 

Gouder was there for all those who needed him, the PN leader said, noting how, in the days after his death, many people had shared screenshots of his words of encouragement and support to them.  

"Karl had a sense of unity - he sought to bring people together, not divide them and he knew how to do it gently without compromising his values," Grech recalled. 

He had taken the Jesuit teaching of being a man for others to heart and lived that way. 

"He would find time for everyone and listen to everyone," Grech said. "Karl took care of everyone. Let's be more sensitive and take care of each other like he used to."

Farrugia: You had no choice but to love Karl

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia also spoke in Gouder's memory, describing him as an upstanding gentleman.

"You had no choice but to love Karl," Farrugia said. 

He also shared an anecdote.

"In 2023, I was going through a tough time, health-wise. He would text me every week, to ask how I was and whether I needed anything. And he would text me every year on my birthday," Farrugia recalled.