Repubblika welcomes the expulsion of Konrad Mizzi as a step on the long and tough path to truth and justice.
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.
But it is important to remain vigilant.
The ecosystem of impunity and corruption that pervaded and dominates our country 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.
We need to find the courage to examine why our institutions become paralysed when confronted with those who have 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.
Konrad Mizzi did what he did also 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.
We need honesty concerning all that which is beginning to bring us out of the abyss we have been plunged into.
Repubblika reiterates its demand that a joint inquiry 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.