Cyrus Engerer has been elected to take up Miriam Dalli’s seat as Labour MEP after garnering 32,918 votes in the casual election held on Thursday.

In initial comments supplied to the press, Mr Engerer said he hopes to continue working in Dr Dalli’s footsteps, listing the environment, climate change and public health among his top priority areas.

An MEP seat opened up after Dr Dalli resigned to be co-opted to local Parliament, filling the seat vacated by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Malta has six MEPs, with four representing the Labour Party and two representing the Nationalist Party. Asked for how he intends to improve Malta’s reputation in Brussels, Mr Engerer said it is good for opposing sides to challenge each other in Malta, however a stronger united front must be presented at a European level.

Thew newly elected MEP is a former Nationalist Party politician, who switched to the Labour camp in 2011 during the divorce referendum. He was a former chairperson of the Maltese Consultative Council on LGBTIQ rights.

Mr Engerer had run for a seat in the European Parliament back in 2014, but he subsequently withdrew his candidacy after he was found guilty of distributing pornography of his ex-boyfriend. He was handed a two-year suspended sentence.

Following this, he served as a special envoy in Brussels under Dr Muscat’s administration. He then stepped down to run for the 2019 MEP election.

While unsuccessful, a seat opened up again in 2020 after Dr Dalli stepped down from the European Parliament.