Edward Zammit Lewis

Edward Zammit Lewis (born 21 June 1973 in Pietà) is a Maltese politician within the Labour Party, and a member of Parliament and Minister since 2013.

Early and personal life
Edward Zammit Lewis attended St Aloysius' College and received his Bachelor of Laws and Doctorate of Laws at the University of Malta. He is married to Elena Farrugia, a notary, with whom he has a daughter.

Political career
Edward Zammit Lewis served as President of the Labour Youth Forum (Żgħażagħ Laburisti) for two consecutive years. In 1997, he was elected as local councillor for the Labour Party in Attard.

Until 2013, he practised as a lawyer at the Courts of Malta, including as a counsel to the Labour Party. Then party leader Joseph Muscat appointed Zammit Lewis to represent the party in the debate on the rent law reform amendments in 2009.

At the March 2013 elections, won by the Labour Party, Zammit Lewis was elected a Member of Parliament for District 8. He was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth.

From April 2014 till June 2017, he served as Minister for Tourism, also responsible for Air Malta (which Zammit Lewis unsuccesfully attempted to sell to Alitalia ) and for the film industry in the 1st Muscat cabinet.

Zammit Lewis was not re-elected at the 2017 election. In the following two years, his law firm received several direct orders from governmental bodies including Identity Malta, the Lands Authority, and the National Development and Social Fund. Zammit Lewis also served as consultant for then-energy minister Konrad Mizzi.

In July 2019 Zammit Lewis returned to Parliament via a by-election and was appointed as Minister for European Affairs and Equality in the 2nd Muscat cabinet, replacing Helena Dalli who had been appointed EU Commissioner. During his tenure, Zammit Lewis employed Saviour Balzan as public relations manager.

From January 2020 till 2022, Zammit Lewis served as Minister for Justice, Governance and Equality in the government led by Robert Abela. During this tenure, Zammit Lewis oversaw the introduction of judicial reforms to comply with the recommendations of the Venice Commission to strengthen the rule of law.

Abela did not reappoint Zammit Lewis to government following the 2022 Maltese general election.

Controversies
Zammit Lewis is considered very close to former Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, whom he knows since the times of St Aloysius' College. He was part of Muscat's inner circle of aides, also accompanying the prime minister on family holidays, including a stay at a Hilton Hotel in France in 2017, which was paid for by Yorgen Fenech, later accused for masterminding the 2017 assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In January 2019, Zammit Lewis mocked Simon Busuttil's calls for an investigation into the company 17 Black in private messages to the company's owner Yorgen Fenech. In the messages, Zammit Lewis also mocked Labour Party supporters and referred to them as dim-witted (ġaħan). After these messages were revealed to the public in 2021, the NGO Repubblika and the political party AD+PD called for Zammit Lewis' resignation, and Leader of the Opposition Bernard Grech announced his intention to call for a motion of no confidence in him in parliament. Zammit Lewis refused to resign, claiming he had already made public his acquaintance with Yorgen Fenech.

In September 2019, Yorgen Fenech offered Zammit Lewis to employ his supporters within his Tumas Group. Such arrangements had already occasionally taken place since 2014, when Zammit Lewis was minister of tourism. Zammit Lewis stated that this is a "normal practice among politicians" to help their constituents.