The Prime Minister’s wife, Lydia Abela, has dropped her license to work in Malta’s controversial passport selling scheme.

Abela was a listed IIP agent as of November 2019, but dropped her interest in the field once her husband Robert Abela was appointed Prime Minister.

It remains to be seen whether an employee within the firm will register as an IIP agent.

The Prime Minister is an outspoken proponent of the passport selling scheme, regularly telling audiences that he plans to keep the programme and reform it where need be, despite calls to scrap the programme altogether.

Robert Abela maintains that the scheme generates significant wealth of the country, and has even quoted anonymous PN figures who are in favour of its continuation.

The PN has come out against the scheme after years of internal debate, with Leader Adrian Delia even refusing to participate in choosing the scheme’s new regulator… a move which has been sharply criticised by Abela.

Abela’s legal interests have come under fire ever since he threw himself in the leadership race. His firm, Abela Advocates, benefits greatly from government contracts and direct orders despite its relatively small size.

A lucrative agreement with the Planning Authority since 2013 has been regularly criticised.

Abela has stepped away from the firm, but he at one point seemed to suggest that his firm could still get contracts under his tenure.

He did backtrack in an interview on XTRA, saying that his wife, a partner in his family’s legal firm, will not be bidding for work in the public sector.

It is as yet unclear whether Lydia Abela will drop her other interests in the law firm. She recently stepped away from her executive position with the Labour Party to dedicate her time to helping her husband.

Lovin Malta reached out to both the Prime Minister and Lydia Abela for a comment.