Chris Cardona Set To Leave Politics After Finding A Job In The Pharmaceutical Industry
PL deputy leader and former Economy Minister Chris Cardona is set to depart from Malta’s political scene after landing a job with a major pharmaceutical company.
Cardona was left out of Robert Abela’s new Cabinet after rejecting the new Prime Minister’s offer for a ministerial role and Lovin Malta is reliably informed that he plans to depart from politics and join the pharmaceutical industry, which used to fall under his ministerial portfolio.
Earlier today, Cardona told MaltaToday that he wants to take a step back and spend more time with his family but that he will retain his position as PL deputy leader for party affairs. However, he was coy when asked whether he will contest the next general election, saying he will decide at a later stage and the it all depends on what the party needs.
Cardona is one of Malta’s most veteran MPs, having served in Parliament in every legislature since 1996.
He was appointed Economy Minister in 2013, where he presided over a period of record economic growth and low unemployment and spearheaded legislation to attract the medical cannabis industry to Malta.
Chris Cardona with new Prime Minister Robert Abela
Cardona was also at the centre of one of the most salacious stories of recent history, when now-assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia wrote that he had visited a brothel while on official business in Germany, an allegation he vehemently denied.
Late last year, Cardona suspended himself as Economy Minister after featuring in police investigations into the assassination of Caruana Galizia. It later emerged that murder suspect Yorgen Fenech had given police a typed letter which instructed him to pin the blame for the murder on Cardona’s shoulders.
Fenech was given this letter by his doctor Adrian Vella, who later told police that the former Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri had handed it to him to give to Fenech. Testifying in court, Schembri denied that this was the case.
The transcripts of this letter were published by Lovin Malta today in two parts – here and here.
Moments after Joseph Muscat’s resignation, Cardona singled out the trust the outgoing Prime Minister placed in “people who are intrinsically wrong” as a weakness. He later urged the PL to kick Schembri out of the party or risk being complicit in his actions. Schembri submitted his resignation from the PL shortly afterwards.
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