Joseph F. Cassar Galea (1920–1989) was a Maltese lawyer and politician with the Nationalist Party , who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives for three months in early 1953.
Cassar Galea was born in Paola on 18 July 1920. He remained associated with that locality for the rest of his life, both through his repeated successful candidacy for general elections between 1951 and 1976, and through a memorial by the Nationalist Party in Paola.
Political Career
Cassar Galea became Speaker of the House of Representatives in January 1953 following the resignation of Anthony Pullicino . Pullicino's resignation led to the first vote of confidence in the Parliament of Malta, pushed by Opposition Leader Dom Mintoff against the Prime Minister of the Coalition Government, George Borg Olivier. The issue was how strong the coalition government between the Nationalist Party and the Malta Workers Party led by Dr. Paul Boffa was. The vote (18 to 17) passed in favor of the government with the speaker casting a casting vote.
On 4 December 1964, Cassar Galea was involved in a plane crash along with a number of other passengers in the Demerara River in Guyana , South America.
He served as Malta's representative in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe between May 1965 and January 1971.
In 1974 Cassar Galea was one of six members of parliament of the Nationalist Opposition against the constitution of the Republic of Malta.
He died on 14 December 1989 and was buried in the Addolorata Cemetery in Paola.