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.

However, he was also at the centre of one of the most salacious political stories of recent Maltese 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.

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.

Shortly after Robert Abela’s election as Prime Minister last January, Lovin Malta reported that Cardona had turned down an offer for a ministerial role and was set to depart from Parliament.