In recent months the prime minister and his predecessor have been taking shots at individual members of the judiciary. Robert Abela has cryptically suggested that it’s the electorate’s verdict that matters and not that of some judge.

Joseph Muscat, now the subject of an ongoing magisterial investigation, is busy trying to delay the investigation beyond and past the next elections when he hopes that his former lawyer and ‘friend’ will once again give him a new diplomatic passport and a keep-out-of-jail card.

The reasons for this slick attack on the credibility and integrity of the judiciary are threefold and can be translated into three names: Daphne, Vitals and Sofia.

Following the assassination of that troublesome journalist in October 2017, Muscat faced protestors demanding justice and a public inquiry into the tragedy. Muscat flatly refused. However, as the details reached overseas, he quickly changed tack and ordered the public inquiry.

His first choice of panel members was clearly suspect, so much so that he was told to backtrack and appoint another one. He must have thought that “the EU can’t shoot me for trying”.

Just think that his PR guru Kurt Farrugia alleged at the time that Muscat was within an inch of becoming the new president of the European Council. Please don’t laugh.

The Daphne inquiry took months and outlived the resignation of Muscat as prime minister.

His appointed successor and once legal counsel, Robert Abela, soon became uncomfortable with the revelations coming out of the public inquiry.

Putin style, he ordered the inquiry to hurry up and conclude. It politely ignored him. In the end, the inquiry concluded that the State should shoulder responsibility for Daphne’s death and that a culture of impunity had been created from the highest echelons of power within Castille.

By 2018, it was clear to all that after receiving hundreds of millions from a future Accutor consultant, Vitals’ ‘real deal’ was nothing much more than a huge billboard at the entrance to the old St Luke’s Hospital.

The Nationalist Party, in the public interest, took the case before the courts asking for the immediate termination of the contract.

Abela opposed the request and between sittings simply poured a further €280 million into Steward Healthcare’s pocket. No one could fathom which side this prime minister was on. Was he for the Maltese public or for foreign fraudsters and their local accomplices?

In 2023 the First Hall of the Civil Court annulled the contract. Months later the Court of Appeal confirmed the verdict. It held that this was a fraud by government officials carried out on the unsuspecting public.

Suddenly, the prime minister fell off his horse and turned. He pleaded for confidence in his attempt to make good the “not so big” financial loss suffered by taxpayers. He let it be known that he was in an arbitration process with Steward but would not discuss its details.

Today, we know that the death of Jean Paul Sofia could have been avoided had the administration done its job- Eddie Aquilina

Some on the other side of the truth spectrum allege that it was Steward that initiated the arbitration request using a once secret side letter signed by an Konrad Mizzi, by which Steward is owed a further €100 million termination pay out, regardless of any non-performance on its part.

Be sure we will not hear about the outcome before the June MEP poll.

In December 2022, a young worker named Jean Paul Sofia died under a building site collapse. Connections then emerged with alleged criminals close to the Labour Party. The boy’s mother was expected to accept condolences from the party she had always voted for and to go back home.

Instead, she asked the prime minister for a public inquiry. He refused. He used a false legal argument to shut her up. She kept on asking. He kept on refusing, warning her that Bernard Grech was only using her to his political advantage.

Grech then filed a motion in parliament asking for the public inquiry but when it came to the vote, the prime minister and his united party group of right wing “socialists” said “no way”.

The next day, the mother, a simple private citizen but with a heart bigger than Castille’s, called on the public to support her in a protest meeting. Within hours, Abela was under siege from his party group accusing him of having led them all, face down, into a colossal vote loser.

The brave woman had clearly moved public opinion overnight and Abela finally realised it. He ignored the group’s previous decision and again turned 180 on a sixpence.

Then came his Sunday announcement full of fake excuses for his cock-ups.

It was a feeble attempt to dissolve the Monday night protest. He failed miserably in that too.

Today, we know that the death of Sofia, like that of Miriam Pace before him, could have been avoided had the administration done its job. The Sofia inquiry told us as much.

And now I predict that the taxpayer will again foot the bill – that Abela will soon unilaterally present to the Sofia family monetary “compensation” for his party’s flagrant incompetence and corruption which was the cause for their huge loss.

Wait for it. Malta needs saving.