Robert Abela’s new crop of ministers met for their first cabinet meeting on Monday morning, one week after the Labour Party won a third consecutive general election. 

Abela’s cabinet, including junior ministers and principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar, met at the Office of the Prime Minister in Valletta. The Department of Information provided a photo of the occasion but no further information. 

Missing for the occasion was deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, who is recovering from COVID-19, and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, who said on Facebook that he is also unwell. 

Abela said that it was a positive meeting.  

"We are driven and determined to carry out the work that Gozitan and Maltese people have entrusted us with," the prime minister said. 

Ministers and junior ministers were appointed to their various roles by Abela last week.

It was the third time that Abela has led a meeting of a new cabinet: the first instance was following his appointment as Labour leader and prime minister following the resignation of Joseph Muscat, with the second coming just 10 months later, when Abela reshuffled his cabinet.

This new cabinet is made up of 18 ministers and four parliamentary secretaries, making it among the largest in Maltese political history. But the already crowded table will soon grow even more tightly packed, with Abela having said that he intends to make two further cabinet appointments in the weeks to come. 

Those two additional roles will be filled once additional seats in parliament have been filled through casual elections and a new gender rebalancing mechanism.