The PN will be forcing the government to vote on a public inquiry into the death of 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia. 

In a statement, Nationalist party leader Bernard Grech said the Opposition will be moving a parliamentary motion that asks for a "public and independent" inquiry into the death of Sofia. 

“Our society needs to send a clear message that something as serious and tragic as this cannot be ignored,” Grech said on Tuesday.  

Sofia was the only fatality of a building site collapse on December 3. He was found dead buried beneath the rubble of what was being developed into a timber factory. Five workers were rescued from the rubble, three of them seriously injured. 

Calls for a public inquiry from the opposition and Jean Paul’s mother, have been ignored.  

Asked in parliament whether a public inquiry will be launched into the death of the 20-year-old, prime minister Robert Abela skirted the question saying there was an ongoing magisterial inquiry and investigations by other authorities. 

 “If we really want justice, the work of these institutions should be allowed to be done in serenity,” Abela said earlier this month. 

But the opposition will be forcing the government to choose whether to vote against a public inquiry or cave to pressure.  

Speaking weeks after her son’s death Jean Paul’s mother Isabelle Bonnici called for a public inquiry into her son’s death.  

Bonnici wants a public inquiry for the public authorities, herself, and her family to know what happened, with the hope that such a tragedy does not repeat itself. 

"My life’s mission was my only son,” Bonnici told Times of Malta, “now my mission is to bring justice for him,” she said. 

Bonnici publicly called on the prime minister to meet her at the beginning of February. 

Since then, she has taken to social media to reiterate her call for a public inquiry.  

“I want to know exactly what happened and every person whose hands are stained with my son’s blood. Only a public inquiry can show the failings of the sector and give recommendations that might work,” she said on Saturday.