Labour should immediately start internal procedures to kick ex-leader Joseph Muscat out of the party, rule of law NGO Repubblika has demanded. 

Addressing a press conference outside Labour PL’s HQ, Repubblika president Robert Aquilina said the party had a responsibility to set partisan interests aside for the good of the country. 

Aquilina said a public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia concluded that Muscat was responsible for creating an environment of impunity that facilitated the journalist’s killing. 

“The gravity of what happened because of Joseph Muscat’s actions is unprecedented,” Aquilina said.

The NGO submitted a letter with its request to the Labour Party at its headquarters in Ħamrun on Saturday morning.  

Ministers should be barred from running for reelection

The rule of law NGO also demanded that all of Muscat’s cabinet members found to have been collectively responsible for this impunity should not be allowed to contest for public office.

As the largest party in Malta, Aquilina said Labour has an obligation to ensure what happened in the corridors of power over the past years is never repeated.

“We cannot move forward with the contributors of impunity still in politics. They need to be held responsible”.

Aquilina said Labour had to prove through its actions that it can do better.

Echoing Muscat’s 2013 ‘Malta for all’ election slogan, Aquilina said Labour had to ensure Malta truly was for everyone, rather than the select few forming part of the “mafioso octopus”.

The public inquiry, published on Thursday, concluded that the state should be held responsible for the journalist’s assassination.

It said the culture of impunity had started from Castille and slowly spread to the police and other institutions. 

Correction: A previous version misstated the date of the mass meeting depicted in the article's cover photo.