Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he had taken the decision to resign serenely after being buoyed by the support of the Labour parliamentary group and Labour supporters.

In a One Radio interview on Monday, Dr Muscat said he had already been thinking of stepping down but wanted to ensure that the Daphne Caruana Galizia was solved on his watch, in contrast to other cases which remained unsolved.

Businessman Yorgen Fenech was charged with complicity in the murder of the journalist on Saturday night. 

The prime minister now looked forward to a life where he could keep politics at arm’s length after having been heavily involved since he joined the radio station as a journalist.

Dr Muscat announced his resignation on Sunday, saying it would take effect once a new Labour leader was elected in mid-January. He faces calls from protesters to step down immediately. 

On Monday morning he said he would only take day-to-day decisions in the transitory period, leaving major decisions to the new prime minister.

His role, he said, would be to ensure that the election process was free and fair and all candidates were given equal space to explain their ideas and plans.

How will leadership election work?

He was confident that the party delegates and members would have a number of valid candidates to choose from.

In terms of party rules, should there be more than two candidates, party delegates will vote for the two favourites. 

The party membership will then vote for either of the two. This will be the first time that the party will use this system since Muscat himself moved amendments to the party statute some years ago. 

Muscat to visit localities to say farewell

Dr Muscat said he was taking responsibility for what had taken place, through his own actions or the actions of others, and he wanted the government to start a new page under the new prime minister.

He thanked all those who had overwhelmed him with their messages of support and said he intended to visit various localities to meet the people, as he had done when he was elected to the party leadership in 2008.