Guido de Marco was born in Valletta on 22nd July 1931. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Economics and Italian and as a doctor of Laws at the University of Malta. Prof. Guido de Marco was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1966 and has been returned to Parliament at every General Election. In 1977 he was elected Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party and has since been uninterruptedly confirmed until his resignation in 1999. In 1987 he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and Justice and in 1990 Minister of Foreign Affairs. One of his first acts was submitting Malta’s application for membership of the European Communities. In 1990 Prof. de Marco was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly (45th Session). During this time he initiated a dialogue, that later led to a presidential motion unanimously approved, to revitalize the General Assembly and other aspects of reform necessary during a time of transition in international relations. Representing the General Assembly, as its President, he undertook a number of diplomatic initiatives. In 1992, at CSCE Council in Prague, Malta launched Prof. de Marco’s initiative to declare CSCE a regional arrangement in terms of Chapter VII of the United Nations, a proposal which was later approved at the Helsinki Summit. Prof. de Marco was elected by the Maltese Parliament to be one of its representatives at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where he remained for almost twenty years. In 1999, he was elected by Parliament as the Sixth President of Malta.
He is married to Violet Saliba and they have three children.