Dr Michael Briguglio is a sociologist and drummer.
He has a doctorate in sociology and is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta, within the Department of Sociology. His main research interests are politics, social movements, the environment and social policy, and has published several scholarly contributions on these topics. He is one of the founders of the Malta Sociological Association where he currently serves as Public Relations Officer; and is a member of the European Sociological Association, the International Sociological Association, the International Political Science Association, the International Association for Impact Assessment, and the Political Studies Association.
Dr. Briguglio is a board member of Research Network 25 - Social Movements of the European Sociological Association, and a convenor of the Works in Progress Seminar Series at the University of Malta.
Michael is an established drummer in the Malta rock scene. He is the drummer of Fire, whom he joined in 2019. In 1994, he co-founded Norm Rejection, with whom he released three albums and two EPs. He also released three EPs with Dripht and an album with Filletti & Friends; and featured in other recordings and concerts.
Michael is an op-ed columnist with The Malta Independent. He has been involved in civil society and environmental activism since the mid-1990s. He commenced his activism in 1994 with Moviment Graffitti. In 1997 he was instrumental in the change in legislation that meant that the selling of public land required parliamentary approval from then on. This followed protests and a six-day hunger strike against the Portomaso project, which involved the cheap sale of public land. That year Michael was also active in the successful campaign in favour of stipends. In 1999 he co-founded Front Kontra l-Golf Course, which eventually succeeded in stopping the development of a golf course the size of Sliema on agricultural land in Rabat. In 2003 Nature Trust gave Dr. Briguglio the Green Outstanding Personality award. In 2015, he co-founded Front Ħarsien ODZ, and as part of this movement he co-organised the Save Żonqor protest - the biggest ever environmental protest in Malta, with 4,000 people protesting against the private university development at Żonqor Point. He was also active in Civil Society Network which he co-founded, co-organising a number of protests for justice and against corruption, including the biggest ever civil society protest in Malta, with 15,000 people calling for justice in the aftermath of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Michael was also active in the campaign for EU membership and co-founded the successful Yes to Divorce campaign. He was also the first politician in Malta to publicly express support for same-sex marriage while active in Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green Party - between 1998 and 2017. He first contested elected office with the Greens in 2003. In those elections he was elected to the local council of his hometown, Sliema. He was elected again in 2006, 2012, and 2013. He led the party between 2009 and 2013. In 2013, Michael received the highest ever number of first-preference votes for an AD candidate in a general election (741 on the 10th district) and in the Sliema local council elections (727, winning 8.2 per cent of votes). In 2013 AD also achieved its best ever general election result. Dr. Briguglio was part of Partit Nazzjonalista’s coalition for good governance in the 2017 general election and contested the 2019 European Parliamentary elections with the PN, obtaining 3,134 first count votes going up to 4,625 in the final vote.
