Robert Abela’s new cabinet is by far younger than previous ministerial teams. The new set of ministers have an average age of 43, with the youngest minister being Clint Camilleri at 34. Incidentally the eldest minister (aged 65), Anton Refalo, also hails from Gozo. If one includes parliamentary secretaries, 10 of the 22 members of cabinet are below 40.

Robert Abela’s cabinet has an average age that mirrors that of the overall Maltese population. This explains why the manifesto proposals of the Labour party reflect so closely the priorities of the electorate. This is the first time that this has occurred as previous Cabinets tended to be older than the national median.

For instance, the last Nationalist administration had an average age of 49, and only two of its members were below 40. Robert Abela’s first cabinet had a similar average age of 48, though it had 8 of its members who were below 40.

Robert Abela’s cabinet has an average age that mirrors that of the overall Maltese population.

Robert Abela has once again appointed all Gozitan Members of Parliament as Ministers, reiterating his commitment to place Malta’s sister island at the centre of policymaking. One in six ministers, in fact, hail from Gozo.

The prime minister has also included all elected women in his cabinet, appointing two as ministers and one as a parliamentary secretary. He has also indicated that he will appoint more women as parliamentary secretaries, as more join Labour’s ranks as a result of casual elections and the gender balance mechanism are finalised.

The 2022 Abela cabinet includes a refreshing mixture of experience and new blood. Four Ministers ran for the first time in the 2022 general election, as did all four parliamentary secretaries.

Only one minister served as a Minister in the first Muscat cabinet, while 3 had served as parliamentary secretaries.

This well-balanced team now starts the task of transforming the 1000 manifesto proposals into 1000 new achievements.