Michelle Muscat ( Tanti; born 16 May 1974) is the wife of the former Prime Minister of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

Joseph Muscat Joseph Muscat (born 22 January 1974) is a Maltese politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Malta from 2013 to 2020 and leader of the Labour Party from 2008 to 2020. Muscat was first elected Prime Minister in March 2013 with 54.83 ...

Biography

Michelle Muscat met

in 1995, at a "Labour Youth Forum activity". The couple married in 2001, and have twin children born in 2007. Her mother died in 2015; her father died in 2020. Prior to her husband's term as Prime Minister, she worked as personal assistant to Alfred Sant and as a secretary to a Labour minister. In 2018, she described herself as "passionate about social democratic values". Muscat was a campaigner for

Robert Abela Robert Abela (born 7 December 1977) is a Maltese lawyer and politician who has served as prime minister of Malta and leader of the Malta Labour Party since 2020. The son of former president George Abela, he was elected to Parliament in 2017 ...

in 2019.

Business and philanthropy

Panama Papers

In 2017, as part of the reaction to the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

, she was alleged to be involved in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

-based letterbox companies in a network of political-business connections of her husband. After Muscat's election in 2013, employees of Brian Tonna created the letterbox company Egrant Inc. in Panama. In April 2017, journalist

Daphne Caruana Galizia Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia (; 26 August 1964 – 16 October 2017) was a Maltese writer, journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist, who reported on political events in Malta. She was known internationally for her investigation of the Pa ...

suggested that shares in Egrant Inc. were held by

Mossack Fonseca Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider.Bank of Valletta Bank of Valletta plc (BOV) is a Maltese bank and financial services company headquartered in Santa Venera. It is the oldest established financial services provider in Malta and one of the largest. As of 2014, the bank had 44 branches, 6 regio ...

, is a distributor of donations to other non-profits. In 2019, Muscat took over the Foundation after several years of serving as its chairperson. As part of her work with the Foundation, she has held an annual long-distance charity swim. Her time as leader has drawn criticism from some media outlets, who suggest she has misappropriated foundation funds.

Philanthropy

In the earl 2010s, Muscat was appointed a patron of Eurodris – the EU Alliance for Rare Diseases. She continued to be a patron until at least 2024. In 2017, she was appointed an International Global Citizen Ambassador for Children’s Health and Disease Prevention by Global Citizen. Muscat has been an advocate for people with

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

. She attended the annual World Forum on Autism from 2013 to 2016. As of 2016, Muscat was the Honorary President of the Association of Parents of Autistic Children. She also has attended conferences held by

Autism Speaks Autism Speaks Inc. is an American non-profit autism awareness organization and the largest autism research organization in the United States. It sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governm ...

. She has also advocated for breast cancer awareness and education.

Honours

* 2015:

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

(''Großes

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first President of the Federal Republic ...

mit Stern und Schulterband'') * 2017: ** National Volunteer of the year, Malta Council for Voluntary Work ** Celebrating Women International award * 2018:

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

* 2019: Bupa Malta Award, GlobalCapital Health Insurance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muscat, Michelle 1975 births Living people People from Rabat, Malta 2019 Malta political crisis Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany