| Honorific-Prefix: | Honourable |
| Silvio Parnis | |
| Birth Date: | 19 October 1965 |
| Birth Place: | Paola, Malta |
| Office: | Member of Parliament |
| Term Start: | 24 October 1998 |
| Term End: | 20 February 2022 |
| Party: | Labour |
| Office1: | Parliamentary Secretary for Active Ageing and Persons with Disability |
| Term Start1: | 15 January 2020 |
| Term End1: | 23 November 2020 |
| Primeminister1: | Robert Abela |
| Office2: | Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government and Communities |
| Term Start2: | 9 June 2017 |
| Term End2: | 15 January 2020 |
| Office3: | Mayor of Paola |
| Term Start3: | 1994 |
| Term End3: | 1996 |
| Successor3: | Ino Bonello |
Silvio Parnis (19 October 1965 – 3 January 2023) was a Maltese politician of the Labour Party. Parnis served in the Parliament of Malta from 1998 to 2022.[1]
Parnis was born in Paola to Michael and Doris Caruana.[2] He grew up there. He attended Paola Primary School and his secondary education at St. Elias College in Santa Venera.[3] In 2007 he married Dorianne née Cauchi, with whom he had one son, Jacob.
Parnis worked as a health supervisor and as an assistant social worker to elderly residents at the St. Vincent De Paul Residence.
In 1991 he was bequeathed a small piece of land in St Paul’s Bay by will of a childless elderly couple, as he declared in Parliament in 2006.[4]
While in politics, Parnis was also a television and radio presenter, discussing current and social affairs. In 2006 Parnis presented the radio program Maltese: Problemi tal-Qalb (Problems of the Heart) on PL-owned One Radio, as well as the television programs Maltese: M’Intix Waħdek (You are not alone), Maltese: Kliem u Fatti (Words and Facts), and Maltese: Forum on Smash Television. He stopped his media engagements after the Party decided that no election candidates should host media shows.[5]
From 1994 to 1998, Parnis served as mayor of Paola.
He was then elected member of the Maltese Parliament in 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2017. He always ran for the 4th electoral district, including Gudja, Paola, Għaxaq, Marsa (Trinity Parish Church area), Santa Luċija, Fgura (Mater Bon Consigli), and Tarxien.
From 2013 to 2017, Parnis advocated for the Paola Square Project and an environmental study on Wied Blandun. Parnis also contributed significantly to other projects such as the university buildings in Bormla (lent out to the Sadeen Group's private American University of Malta) and Inwadar Park. From 2013 to 2017, he also held the role of Chairman of the Committee on Bills.[3]
Following the 2017 elections, Parnis was appointed parliamentary secretary for local government and communities in the last cabinet of Joseph Muscat, and then as parliamentary secretary for active ageing and persons with disabilities in the first Abela cabinet.[6]
Parnis was left out of government in November 2020,[7] following criticism of his inability to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on public elderly homes, as Malta recorded the second-highest rate of mortality in care homes in Europe. Parnis famously gifted a jam roly-poly slice to all elderly residents with the word "courage" printed on its plastic wrapping.[4] [6]
Parnis announced he would not contest the subsequent 2022 election[7] and that he would "dedicate more time to God and work in favour of life and against abortion".[8] He then took up a job at Infrastructure Malta.[3]
Parnis died of cancer[7] on 3 January 2023, at the age of 57.[10]