Adrian Delia says Prime Minister is compromised and has to resign

Opposition leader Adrian Delia says the Prime Minister must resign because the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was an institutionalised crime that involved individuals in government. 

In a strong speech in Parliament this evening, Delia rebuked Joseph Muscat for thanking his former chief of staff Keith Schembri when he resigned.

“Do you know what the Prime Minister did this morning? He thanked Keith Schembri, he thanked him, he thanked a person that could very well be implicated in murder,” Delia said.

After MPs were denied an urgent debate on the latest political developments, Delia used the Opposition’s time allocation in the debate on the eco-tax to speak about the precarious situation the country is in.

Delia said the country’s reputation had sunk so low that it became close to irredeemable and that in six years, the government had effectively destroyed the country. 

Delia said that Muscat had no problem firing then parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon over the Gaffarena scandal. The Prime Minister also had no problem in asking then home affairs minister Manuel Mallia to resign after his personal driver was involved in a shooting incident.
“In this case, we don’t just have a minister. We have the Prime Minister’s right-hand man. When he announced his resignation this morning, Muscat said that Schembri will now move on. Move on? This man is stealing from the people, he has raped the country’s institutions. He who breaks the law has to be punished and has to face the consequences,” Delia said.

He criticised the Prime Minister for wearing many hats and giving press briefings on the murder investigation, claiming this amounted to a constitutional crisis.

“Muscat said he wanted stability in this country, that’s why he is staying on. The biggest enemy of the country’s stability is the Prime Minister himself,” Delia said.

“The Prime Minister also said that the institutions need to carry on their work. But if the institutions are being compromised, those institutions cannot do their work according to law. The Prime Minister has been compromised, his position is no longer tenable. He is incapable of taking decisions in favour of this country,” Delia said.

Earlier, Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi resigned and Chris Cardona, deputy leader of the Labour Party suspended himself from minister and deputy leader. The Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri also resigned in the morning.

Schembri has been questioned by the police.