Once in a while, every country in the world is pushed to its limits. It is the true test of its structures and of its people, and perhaps most importantly, it is the moment of truth for its leaders. Joseph Muscat likes to say that he is a sailor of rough seas. What he doesn’t say is that he is the one who whipped up the storm our nation is struggling to navigate through.

Almost four years ago, the nation was shocked to learn that Malta’s own representatives and government officials featured in the Panama Papers. The global revelations were a shameful indictment of dysfunctional administrations across the world, whose leaders abused the trust bestowed upon them by their electorate.

Malta was among them. In the wake of huge opaque deals like the Vitals scandal and the LPG tanker, the ICIJ’s reporting confirmed the inherent corruption of Muscat’s administration. It was damning evidence that did more than raise eyebrows: it brought people on the streets in protest.

From Iceland to Pakistan, those featured bowed out of politics. They relinquished their roles to salvage what trust there was left in the offices after their betrayal. By doing so, they disassociated their wrongdoing from that of the government’s, because they understood that action did not represent the people – it cheated them. That, in a nutshell, is what it means to shoulder political responsibility.

Nearly four years ago, when Joseph Muscat defended Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, he tied his political fate inextricably with them. Any further evidence to emerge against either of them would mean his head on a plate.

Imagine if evidence were to emerge suggesting that it was Schembri himself who was involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and subsequent cover-up. Imagine Schembri being protected despite that fact. This would only be the beginning of a nightmare into which Malta has been induced.

Baring his teeth against his own people risks spilling more blood on his watch

Until Muscat remains in office, it is a nightmare from which we will not wake up.

It is abundantly clear that Muscat harbours no good intentions for the democratic or social health of Malta. His first priorities lie with his own skin and the skin of those who have him on a leash. In doing so, he has tried divisively to recast this grave national matter into a partisan issue, pitting people against each other.

Worse still, he has plunged Malta into dictatorial overdrive. The lessons that we should have learned following Daphne’s assassination have been lost on Muscat, but what else were we to expect if it was his own office where the plan to murder her was allegedly concocted?

The vitriolic climate that Daphne Caruana Galizia was made to face in the lead-up to her assassination was a symptom of a serious diagnosis for Maltese society. Only a united nation could ever begin to change it. Thanks to the work of journalists, we know that not only was nothing being done, but that pernicious attitude was actively being nurtured by Muscat’s clique with hate-speech groups and armies of trolls ready to take down activists and critics.

Reprehensibly, that hate machine is up and running once again, making the seas rougher still. The admiral aboard the cruiser is Muscat. His response to the justified outrage of a people whose democracy has been stripped away from them would make his dictator friends proud.

In a single day, Freedom Square was wholly barricaded. A 16-year-old activist was bombarded with threatening comments promoting death and rape for speaking her mind for a better Malta. The Speaker of the House of Representatives evicted people from Parliament without grounds. A journalist was assaulted by a ministerial driver, while glass was thrown at a news crew that same night.

Our commitment towards a stronger and freer press is not a value shared by the Prime Minister. Earlier this year, after Pelin Unker was sentenced to 13 months in prison for her work, I was part of a European effort to support her and ultimately quash her sentence. Contrastingly, Muscat’s handbook is instead plagiarised off of the likes of Erdogan, Aliyev and Ghaddafi, with no room for basic human rights.

Prime ministerial powers are being used to oppress expression and thanks to Muscat’s suffocating grip on power, our nation is increasingly divided, increasingly outraged, and soon verging on the unstable.

If he were responsible for fostering a climate of hate in which Daphne was killed, his response to his own direct implication in the murder is pushing us to the precipice. Baring his teeth against his own people risks spilling more blood on his watch.

Muscat has the audacity to brush over murder with free school transport, and went as far as to mention the power station to bolster his legacy, when it is at the heart of the murder scandal. If he had an opportunity to unite Malta in 2013, he has long turned against his own ideals.

Now, Malta is a country where activists, protestors and journalists are vulnerable. We cannot forget that if it weren’t for the valuable work of journalists, the crooks at the heart of Muscat’s government would have never been caught, let alone brought to justice for their criminal actions. To the journalists who are risking so much to bring us the truth: thank you.

David Casa is a Nationalist MEP.