Repubblika welcomes expulsion of Konrad Mizzi, warns vigilance should remain

Repubblika has welcomed the expulsion of Konrad Mizzi from the parliamentary group, however, warned that the country must remain vigilant against corruption.

The NGO said that the decision taken by the Labour Party executive to expel Mizzi was a “step on the long and tough path to truth and justice.”

On Tuesday evening the Labour Party executive voted to remove the former energy minister from the parliamentary group following the latest scandal involving a Montenegro wind farm purchased by Enemalta from which Yorgen Fenech's 17 Black benefitted.

READ ALSO: Labour executive votes to remove Konrad Mizzi from parliamentary group

“We welcome the fact that after years of being ridiculed and threatened, it seems like our country is beginning to become aware of what we have been pointing out all along: there is a mafia that has taken over power,” the NGO said.

Repubblika warned that the ecosystem of impunity and corruption that pervaded and dominated the island is much larger than Konrad Mizzi.

“While we believe that he has contributed to this corruption, and has to answer for his deeds, we also believe that Konrad Mizzi is also only one sign of the illness that is strangling Malta… It is useless to try and fix something that is eaten up inside or paint a house without foundations. The problem with our country goes very deep, beyond our sight,” it said.

The NGO said that the public needed to find the courage to examine why Malta’s institutions became paralysed when confronted with those who had political or financial power.

“We need to bring into the open the destructive interdependent and incestuous relationship between politics and business… We need to acknowledge both the overt and subtle manipulation of our media by those who have political and financial power,” Repubblika said.

It warned that Konrad Mizzi was allowed to do what he did because Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Nexia BT and police officials did not fulfil their duties, “because state institutions were taken over, businessmen were ready to corrupt and be corrupted, citizens remained silent as long as they benefitted from the situation, constituted bodies were driven by fear and by sectorial interest, sections of the media chose to look the other way, and an incompetent political class was either corrupted or only looked as far as the voting box.”

Repubblika said it reiterated its demand that a joint investigation between Europol and the Malta police is launched immediately into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and into the corruption that caused her murder.

“The Attorney General has to stop presenting excuses. It is in his power and his responsibility to take this step and he does not need anyone to pull the strings for him to do his duty,” the NGO said.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil society only institution that worked’ – anti-corruption protest calls for justice over Montenegro scandal