Peter Agius has clinched the Nationalist Party's second seat in the European Parliament elections. 

In comments at the Naxxar counting hall, Agius said the electorate has sent a clear message for change. 

"We worked a lot to reach this point. The biggest signal sent today by the electorate is a signal for change," Agius said. 

It was second time lucky for Agius to finally manage to gather enough votes to secure a seat in the European Parliament after he missed out in 2019. 

Robert Metsola was re-elected with more votes than any other MEP candidate in Malta’s MEP electoral history with 87,473 votes and both Agius and Casa benefitted from her second preference votes.

Agius received 9,418 first preference votes.

Trained as a lawyer, Agius previously headed the Office of the European Parliament in Malta and at one time worked as a speechwriter for former EU parliament president Antonio Tajani. 

With a strong background in EU affairs and the EU's legislative processes, Agius painted himself as the candidate poised to make the EU more accessible to citizens. 

He started his campaign early and championed a number of issues in recent months, including going head-to-head with Alex Agius Saliba on his claims about abusive food monopolies. He took a complaint by Ħal Farruġ residents over massive aviation fuel tanks close to their homes to the European Commission. 

But he recently also landed in hot water when he claimed that a sheep farm in Għajn Riħana was actually a villa built through EU funds, a statement that later turned out to be unsubstantiated.