Justyne Caruana, who was forced to resign as minister following a jobs scandal, still has a lot to give to the country, Robert Abela said on Sunday.  

Abela was addressing the Labour Party faithful in Gozo when he pointed to Caruana among the crowd.  

“Thank you for your presence here today, Justyne. I still believe that Gozo and Malta need your contribution,” Abela said as the crowd applauded.  

Former education minister Caruana was forced to resign three years ago following a job-for-a-friend scandal.  

Video: Partit Laburista

The resignation followed a damning ethics report into an abusive contract awarded to her close friend and former Malta footballer Daniel Bogdanovic. 

The Standards Commissioner had found that the three-month, €15,000 deal Caruana gave to Bogdanovic violated ethics rules and constituted an abuse of power.  

Caruana did not contest the 2022 general election after the resignation.

In January 2020, she resigned from her post as Gozo minister after Times of Malta revealed that her then-husband, former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta,  was close to alleged Caruana Galizia murder accomplice Yorgen Fenech and had gone abroad on holiday with him. Caruana was brought back to cabinet later that year and handed the education portfolio.  

Following Abela’s remarks, on Sunday PL sources confirmed that many in the party are actively working to bring the popular Gozitan lawyer back into the Labour Party fold.  

Prime Minister Abela will have the chance to do so in the coming weeks after his MP- Randolph De Battista resigns from parliament to take on an ambassadorial role.  

The MP replacing him will be directly appointed by the Labour Party via co-option.  

“Whether he will co-opt Justyne or ask her to contest the next general election is still unclear. But what’s certain is that we’re working to bring her back,” one PL insider told Times of Malta.  

Sunday’s overture to Caruana is not the first.  

In January, Abela said that Caruana was among the people "the Maltese political scene has lost".  

Asked to comment at the time on whether she would return to the political scene, Caruana did not say either way.  

“I thank him for his comments, and no more comments,” she said.  

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