Lawrence Gonzi

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Lawrence Gonzi
12th Prime Minister of Malta
In office 23 March 2004 – 11 March 2013
President	Guido de Marco Edward Fenech Adami George Abela
Deputy	Tonio Borg
Preceded by	Edward Fenech Adami
Succeeded by	Joseph Muscat
Personal details
Born	(1953-07-01) 1 July 1953 (age 59) Pietà, Malta
Political party	Nationalist
Spouse(s)	Catherine Callus[1]
Children	3
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Lawrence Gonzi (born 1 July 1953) is a Maltese politician who was Prime Minister of Malta from March 2004 to March 2013. He was also leader of Nationalist Party. Gonzi served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malta from 1988 to 1996 and Minister of Social Policy from 1998 to 2004, as well as Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2004.^[2]

Political life [edit]

Speaker of the House of Representatives [edit]

On 10 October 1988 he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives for the sixth legislature (1988-1992) and on the 5 April 1992 he was unanimously re-elected Speaker for the seventh legislature (1992-1996). His nomination for Speaker was submitted by the Prime Minister and seconded by the Leader of the Opposition. During his term as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Gonzi overhauled the methods in which Parliament used to operate, such as the set up of permanent committees. While serving as Speaker, Dr Gonzi introduced new procedures with regards to the time established for the debate between the two sides of the House. His tenure as Speaker of the House of Representatives exposed his modest but firm bearing, which has helped calm frayed tempers during quite difficult moments for the house.

^[3]

Member of Parliament [edit]

Dr Gonzi contested the October 1996 General Elections and was elected to Parliament. In November 1996, he was appointed Opposition Party Whip, Secretary to the Parliamentary Group and Shadow Minister for Social Policy. One year after he was elected Secretary General of the Nationalist Party.

Following the September 1998 General Elections, Dr Gonzi was appointed Minister for Social Policy and Leader of the House of Representatives. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister between May 1994 and March 2004.

In the election of 12 April 2003, Dr Gonzi was re-elected and appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy.

Prime Minister [edit]

Lawrence Gonzi and Vice Chancellor of Austria Josef Pröll at the 2010 EPP summit

Following the resignation of Eddie Fenech Adami as party leader, Gonzi won the leadership contest held in March 2004. He was appointed Prime Minister on 23 March 2004. On 1 May 2004, Malta joined the European Union and as Prime Minister, Dr Gonzi attended the EU enlargement official ceremony which took place in Dublin, Ireland, where the Maltese flag was hoisted for the first time alongside those of the 24 member states. From 2004 onwards, he took responsibility for the finance portfolio as Minister of Finance, in which capacity he successfully managed the process to achieve the Maastricht criteria, propelling Malta into the Eurozone. Following the general election held on 8 March 2008, Gonzi was reconfirmed as Prime Minister. He relinquished his post as Minister of Finance but assumed responsibility for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), in particular its reform.

From local economy to euro economy [edit]

During the first term of his premiership, Dr Gonzi guided Malta through a restructuring process that resulted in Malta’s economy fulfilling the required criteria for the adoption of the euro as Malta’s national currency from 1 January 2008. He also embarked upon a drive to improve the management of public finances, focused sharply upon improving Malta’s competitiveness in the international market and accelerated the restructuring process of the public sector. ^[4]

Re-election [edit]

On 8 March 2008, Dr Gonzi was re-elected Prime Minister.The first Prime Minister in the Eurozone to be re-elected after introducing the Euro. In his first message to the nation at the beginning of this legislature Dr Gonzi said that the work of his government should be based on sustainable development with an emphasis on the country’s environment.

Libya policy [edit]

The Libyan crisis has been a major foreign policy challenge for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and the government.

The Prime Minister denounced the crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the Gaddafi regime at an early stage of the conflict when the outcome was not yet clear.

Throughout the crisis Malta served as a hub for the evacuation of foreign nationals from Libya, provided humanitarian and medical assistance to Libya, granted asylum to two Libyan Air Force pilots who defected after being ordered to bomb protesters, refused to return the pilots’ jets to the Gaddafi regime, allowed Nato jets implementing the UN-sanctioned no-fly zone to land in Malta whenever necessary and exchanged intelligence on the Libyan conflict with Nato.

Then, Lawrence Gonzi made it clear way back in March 2011, that Gaddafi’s exit was “inevitable”, a message he reiterated in early April when he told the visiting then Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi that Gaddafi and his family “must go” and the Libyan people’s wish for democracy must be respected.

Malta’s support for the Libyan revolution has been appreciated by the country’s new rulers and the chairman of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, has already made it clear that Malta will have a “distinguished role” in the rebuilding of Libya.^[5]

2013 election [edit]

Gonzi's government on 10 December 2012 following loss of supply by one vote after ruling party MP Franco Debono voted against the government's budget proposal in protest over the government's mismanagement of major privatisation initiatives and dozens of other reasons related to his person.^[6] Parliament was dissolved on 7 January 2013 with an election held in March which resulted in a Labour victory.^[7] 30 minutes after the start of the vote counting Gonzi conceded defeat ^[8] and later on that day held a press conference in which he expressed his desire to resign from the PN leadership.^[9]

Family [edit]

Lawrence Gonzi is the son of Luigi and Ines (née Galea) Gonzi, and a grandnephew of Archbishop Mikiel (Michael) Gonzi. His younger brother is Michael Gonzi, a Nationalist backbencher.

He is married to Catherine (née Callus); the couple has three children.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lawrence Gonzi

Honours [edit]

National Honours [edit]

•  Malta : Companion of Honour of the National Order of Merit (2004) by right as a Prime Minister of Malta

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Lawrence Gonzi on Twitter
• Lawrence Gonzi on Facebook
• Lawrence Gonzi's profile on Parlament.mt
• Lawrence Gonzi's government biography on his term as prime minister

v t e Prime Ministers of Malta Joseph Howard Francesco Buhagiar Ugo Pasquale Mifsud Gerald Strickland Ugo Pasquale Mifsud office abolished, 1933-1947 Paul Boffa Enrico Mizzi Giorgio Borg Olivier Dom Mintoff office abolished, 1958-1962 Giorgio Borg Olivier Dom Mintoff Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici Eddie Fenech Adami Alfred Sant Eddie Fenech Adami Lawrence Gonzi Joseph Muscat

v t e Maltese Government 2008–2013 Jason Azzopardi Tonio Borg Joe Cassar Dolores Cristina John Dalli Mario de Marco Giovanna Debono Tonio Fenech Mario Galea Austin Gatt Lawrence Gonzi Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici Clyde Puli George Pullicino Chris Said Francis Zammit Dimech